Two hikers were found dead inside the Valley of Fire State Park on Saturday, Nevada State Police said, amid an ongoing excessive heat warning in the state.
The hikers’ identities and causes of death have not been released. On Saturday, temperatures soared up to 45 C (114 F) in the area.
A group of hikers reported seeing two women enter the trails at the Valley of Fire in the morning. Later that day, the women still hadn’t returned from their hike.
Though they were not part of the same group, one of the members of the hiking group noted the women’s absence and called 911 to conduct a wellness check, local station KLAS reported.
Officers arrived at the scene shortly before 3 p.m. on Saturday to look for the women, and requested help from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department’s search and rescue team.
State police said one woman was found dead on the trail and the other woman’s body was located inside a canyon. No additional information about where the women were specifically found was released by authorities.
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Valley of Fire State Park is about 105 kilometres northeast of Las Vegas and is world-renowned for its 40,000 acres of bright red Aztec sandstone. The park is home to two famous canyons that draw visitors: Pink Canyon and Fire Canyon.
As of mid-July, there have been seven heat-related deaths in Clark County, which includes Las Vegas and the surrounding areas. Las Vegas has seen 16 heat-related deaths this year, though coroners said that number could be even higher.
Last week, Delta Air Lines cancelled a flight out of Las Vegas’s Harry Reid International Airport after passengers were stuck on the tarmac for hours amid extreme heat. Some passengers and crew passed out due to the heat and had to be stretchered off the flight.
Record-breaking heat continues to bake the southwest United States. On Saturday, Nevada tied its record for the hottest day when a temperature of 115 F (46 C) was measured at Harry Reid airport.
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