'The heat in my flat has made me fear for my life'
BBCAs the heatwave continues in London, many people in the capital are struggling to keep their homes cool and are searching for ways to stay comfortable. One of them is Flora Flynn from Stratford, east London, who contacted BBC Your Voice to say temperatures in her third-floor flat were so high she feared for her life.
The 73-year-old said the heat had caused her to vomit repeatedly, and that she had resorted to lying in a cold bath when needed.
Flynn said: "I did get really scared. I thought, 'is this the end?'"
The mayor of London's recently published heat plan for London reported that at least a million homes, more than 1,300 schools, 60 hospitals and 350 care homes may be at high risk of overheating in future heatwaves.
Extreme heat is becoming an increasing issue in London, with more than a tenth of the 3,271 UK-wide heat-related deaths in 2022 in the capital, according to City Hall.
It says this is due to the city's increasing density of buildings and roads leading to the "urban heat island" effect.
Through City Hall's London Plan, new homes must be designed to stay cooler in hot weather using measures such as shading, ventilation and smarter design, which, it said, would help to reduce the need for "energy-intensive cooling".
For Flynn, living alone and having existing health conditions has left her feeling especially vulnerable.
"I felt at times that I couldn't breathe. I was lying on the floor wondering, 'how am I going to get through this?'"
Reflective panelling which she bought and attached to her windows had really helped, she said, adding that communal piping carrying hot water around the high-rise block was exacerbating the problem.
The block's management company said it was not possible to switch off the supply, but that it was investigating "to establish whether there are any practical measures available to reduce temperatures within the communal areas without compromising residents' hot water supply".
A spokesperson also told the BBC it was going to place Flynn on their vulnerable person list, which would ensure she had a personal emergency evacuation plan (PEEP), if needed.
Polly Turton from Shade UK, a community interest company that works to adapt environments to protect the vulnerable against a changing climate, visited Flynn - along with the BBC - and was able to provide some practical advice: "We always advocate for blocking the sun before it even hits your windows first, so that means external shade.
"So I see you have the silver foil up in the windows, we could look at maybe putting it on the outside of the windows and that would do a bigger, better job of reflecting that heat coming in and that warm air will stop coming through the windows."
Turton told the BBC that climate change meant the UK faced "decades of hotter weather", even if action was taken now to reduce its impact.
"These hot summer temperatures that we're experiencing could actually be some of the coolest we experience in our lifetimes due to climate change," she said.
For those struggling in warm homes, Turton's advice is to keep windows open at the coolest parts of the day, where possible, but to then keep them closed, with shading ideally on the outside, as soon as the sun starts to rise.
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