A hiker was airlifted from a mountaintop in the Phoenix area after he began to feel overcome by the heat, at a time when temperatures across Arizona are soaring. The 72-year-old was identified as Glenn Keane, an Oscar-winning animator behind some of Disney's biggest films, turning what might have been a routine rescue into a story that drew wider attention.
The rescue unfolded in the morning at Mummy Mountain in the Paradise Valley area, where the intense heat quickly turned a hike into an emergency. With temperatures climbing, crews moved to reach the stranded hiker before his condition could worsen on the exposed terrain.
For Keane, the mountain is deeply familiar. He grew up in Arizona and recalled a very different landscape from his childhood, saying that when he was a little kid there were no homes out there, just one house, pretty much their house, in 1959. He remembered that his mother did not worry about him, and that he spent his whole time on that mountain.
Rescuers said this was not a typical operation. Rather than a straightforward extraction using a big-wheel setup to move the hiker down, the situation was dynamic and called for a hoist operation to safely lift him off the mountain. The steep and rugged setting required a more complex approach than usual.
In the end, the effort was a success. Officials reported that Keane and all of the firefighters involved in the rescue were okay, avoiding a more serious outcome despite the punishing conditions on the mountain.
The rescue came against the backdrop of an extreme heat warning in effect through the weekend across much of Arizona. That warning has put public health officials on alert as they try to keep residents and visitors safe during a stretch of dangerously high temperatures.
The stakes are underscored by a grim toll. Already this year, there have been at least 40 heat-related deaths in the Phoenix area, more than twice the number reported in the region at the same time last year. The deputy director of Maricopa County's Department of Public Health said every single one of those deaths is preventable and called it very frustrating to see the numbers increase at this rate, adding that the area saw 100-plus degree days in March, something described as unprecedented.