The Docket occasionally constructs interviews with people who don't exist but probably should. Connie Delgado-Fitch is one of them, a composite character built from the demographic patterns, program structures, and surveillance data in Maricopa County's published heat-death reports. Her son is not real. Her folder is.
You brought a folder.
Connie: I brought the folder. I have several folders. This is the heat one. It gets updated every April when the county publishes the annual report. The other folders are for Danny's lease terms and his utility account information, which I probably shouldn't have, but he gave me his APS login three years ago and never changed the password. That's on him.
What's in the heat folder?
Connie: The 2025 report. The 2024 report. Printouts of the MAG cooling center map for his zip code, which I reprint in May because sites change during the season.1 A list of AC repair programs with phone numbers and income thresholds. And my notes. I was an office manager for Cartwright Elementary District for twenty-eight years. I know how to read a compliance document. The county heat report is a compliance document, it just doesn't know it yet.
When did you start reading the annual report?
Connie: 2023. That was the year with 645 deaths.2 A woman at my church lost her brother-in-law. He was found in his apartment in Glendale, AC unit right there in the wall, but it wasn't running. I remember her saying that at the service: "the air conditioner was right there." Like it had betrayed him. I went home and pulled up the report and found the number that changed everything for me. In 2025, 94 percent of people who died indoors from heat had an air conditioning unit present. And of those, 72 percent had units that weren't functioning.3
How did you read that number?
Connie: The way I used to read budget shortfalls. You look at the gap. Everyone talks about "access to cooling" like the problem is people don't have AC. Most of them had AC. The unit was sitting right there in the wall or on the roof. It just wasn't working. Or it was working but turned off. Twenty-three percent of the cases with AC present, the unit was functional but off.3 The report doesn't say why. Was the person confused? Was the bill too high? Did they not realize how hot it was inside? Nobody knows. The data comes from after.
After?
Connie: The scene investigation. The medical examiner's office. They check whether the AC is present, whether it's on, whether it works, but they check at the time of discovery. Not before. So you're looking at a snapshot of a room after someone has already died in it. That's the data I'm working with.
What does that mean for how you think about Danny?
Connie: It means I can verify everything except the thing that matters. I can check the MAG map and tell you there are cooling centers within four miles of his apartment.1 I can log into his APS account and see whether his bill is current. I know the summer shutoff moratorium runs June 1 through October 15, so they won't cut his power for nonpayment during that window.4 After the Kate Korman case, APS agreed to pause shutoffs anytime it's forecast to hit 95, even outside the moratorium months.5 So I can be reasonably confident his electricity is on.
What I cannot know is whether his AC unit is working. That's a different question entirely, and no system answers it.
Have you looked into AC repair programs?
Connie: I have a whole page on that. AllThrive 365 does repairs and replacements, averaging about $11,000 per unit.6 The county has an Emergency Home Repair Program.7 But Danny rents. The repair programs are designed for homeowners. If his AC breaks, that's his landlord's decision, his landlord's timeline. I can call AllThrive 365 at 602-285-1800. I have the number memorized, which is a sentence I never expected to say about a nonprofit. But I can't apply on his behalf. He'd have to do it. He'd have to qualify. And there'd have to be funding left.
You mentioned the cooling center map. What does it actually tell you?
Connie: Where the doors are. Not whether he'd walk through one. The county's own survey from 2023 found 90 percent of the general community had never visited a cooling center. Sixty percent of the people who did visit were unhoused. Over half walked there.8 The system serves people who are already outside. Danny is inside. His problem isn't finding a cool building. His problem is that his building might stop being cool and I won't know until I know.
The 2025 report says 48 percent of indoor heat deaths were discovered through welfare checks.
Connie: Fifty-three people out of 111.3 Someone called. A neighbor, a family member, EMS. The report's word is "welfare check." I think about those 53 families. Fifty-three times, someone picked up the phone and said, I haven't heard from him. Or, She hasn't answered in two days. And by the time the door opened, it was too late.
I am trying to be the person who calls on day one instead of day three. That's my whole project. That's the folder.
How often do you call Danny?
Connie: Every day in summer. He thinks I'm being — he has a word for it. Several words, actually. He's forty-two. He doesn't love getting a daily call from his mother. But the 2025 report says 74 percent of heat deaths were male.3 The rate for men his age, 35 to 49, was 18.3 per 100,000.3 That's not the highest group, but it's not low. He lives alone. He works outdoors some of the time. He is, statistically, a person the report is about.
Does he know you read the report?
Connie: He knows I worry. He doesn't know I have a folder.
SRP has a Safety Net Program where a family member can get alerts if a loved one's bill is past due.
Connie: He's on APS, not SRP. But yes, I know about that program.9 It requires his permission to enroll. And it tells you about the bill, not the temperature inside. A past-due bill is a signal. It might mean he's struggling financially. It might mean he's avoiding the bill because the AC broke and he doesn't see the point of paying for electricity that isn't cooling anything. But it's an administrative signal. What I need is a physical one.
What would that look like?
Connie: A thermometer inside his apartment that texts me? That probably exists. Some smart-home gadget. But he'd have to agree to install it, and then we're in a different conversation. The conversation about surveillance and dignity and whether a forty-two-year-old man should let his mother monitor his indoor temperature. I understand why that's complicated. I also understand that 53 people were found by welfare check and the report doesn't tell me how many of them had mothers who were calling every day and still didn't call soon enough.
The county reported today that 2026 heat deaths are tripling last year's pace at this point in the season.
Connie: I saw that. Eighteen deaths already.10 And we haven't hit the worst weeks yet. Last year the peak was late July through mid-August. I update my folder. I call Danny. That's what I have.
Is that enough?
No.
Footnotes
-
Maricopa Association of Governments, "Heat Relief Network," 2026. The network runs May 1–September 30 and updates as new partners join. https://azmag.gov/Programs/Community-Initiatives/Heat-Relief-Network ↩ ↩2
-
Maricopa County Department of Public Health, "2025 Heat-Related Deaths Report," April 2026. The 2023 total of 645 was the highest on record; 2024 recorded 608; 2025 recorded 430. https://www.maricopa.gov/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/6510 ↩
-
Maricopa County Department of Public Health, "2025 Heat-Related Deaths Report," April 2026. All indoor death, AC, welfare check, and demographic figures are from this report. https://www.maricopa.gov/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/6510 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5
-
Arizona Corporation Commission, "ACC Reminds Ratepayers of Summer Utility Disconnection Moratorium," June 2, 2026. https://www.azcc.gov/news/home/2026/06/02/acc-reminds-ratepayers-of-summer-utility-disconnection-moratorium--utility-bill-assistance-programs ↩
-
KJZZ, "After heat-related death, APS agrees not to shut off customers' power when temperatures hit 95," April 2026. The policy followed the death of 82-year-old Kate Korman on a 99°F day in May 2024 after APS disconnected her power. https://www.kjzz.org/business/2026-04-15/after-heat-related-death-aps-agrees-not-to-shut-off-customers-power-when-temperatures-hit-95 ↩
-
TheCooldown.com, "Arizona's triple-digit heat is back, and SRP is spending $1.3 million on relief programs," July 2026. https://www.thecooldown.com/green-home/arizona-heat-relief-srp-ac-replacement/ ↩
-
Maricopa County, "Home Improvement Programs." https://www.maricopa.gov/5214/Home-Improvement-Programs ↩
-
Maricopa County Department of Public Health, "Cooling Center Visitor Survey Community 2023 Report," April 2024. The 90% non-visitation figure is from the general community survey (n=1,260); the 60% unhoused and 54% walked figures are from the cooling center visitor survey (n=944). ↩
-
SRP, "Extreme heat warnings explained," updated May 2026. The Safety Net Program allows a designated person to receive alerts about a customer's past-due account. https://blog.srpnet.com/heat-moratoriums-excessive-heat-warnings-explained/ ↩
-
KTAR News, "Maricopa County heat deaths surge past 2025's pace as officials expand cooling resources," July 9, 2026. https://ktar.com/arizona-health-news/maricopa-county-heat-deaths-surge/5887191/ ↩