A worker-led project documenting Texas occupational heat deaths
HEAThens Against HEAT
Heathens, noun:
The workers who build, feed, fix, and keep Texas running in the heat.The workers who refuse to be treated as disposable.
Texas won’t count its workers killed by heat — so we do.
Every case in this archive was found the hard way — dug out of OSHA records and news reports — because no state system counts heat deaths properly. They get coded as cardiac arrest or “natural causes.”
We count them. We tell their stories. And we push for a state where the counting becomes the state’s job.
Texas right now
The estimated Wet Bulb Globe Temperature in fourteen Texas cities, read off National Weather Service forecasts as this page loads — and judged against the two lines we use everywhere: past 79.7°F, rapid cooling must be ready; past 89.8°F, it’s a black-flag day and outdoor work stops.
Loading live estimates from the National Weather Service…
Is today a black-flag day in your city? The full Live Tracker shows every city’s peak WBGT still ahead today — the worst of the day, before it arrives — plus what the two lines mean on a jobsite.
Open the Live TrackerFigures are estimates from National Weather Service data — not on-site black-globe readings.
What happened in the heat?
A close call. A coworker who collapsed. Someone you lost. Your account can reveal the danger official records miss — and help make sure another worker is counted.
About
HEAThens Against HEAT is a worker-led project started by a Texas HVAC man who got tired of waiting for someone to count the workers the heat kills. Texas and heat are synonymous — Texas should be at the forefront of understanding the challenge, and the heat is getting worse. So we count the dead, we tell their stories, and we push for a state that counts them too.
— from a guy who crawls in attics.