CORPSES piled up in mortuaries yesterday as the death toll for California’s record-breaking heat wave rose above 120.

After nearly two weeks, during which temperatures have regularly exceeded 49C (120F), the state was taking emergency measures to stem fatalities.

Aid workers went from door-to-door checking on elderly people and the Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, announced that the state would provide 75 cooling centres.

Health officials contacted nursing homes to ensure that evacuation plans were in place in case air-conditioning systems failed.

In the mortuary at Fresno County the walk-in freezer was packed with bodies, with some piled on top of others, said Loralee Cervantes, the Coroner. With limited air conditioning, employees worked in sweltering heat as the coroner’s office investigated at least 22 possible heat-related deaths. “It’s never been like this in my years here,” Ms Cervantes said. “This is really tragic.”

The heat also brought with it wildfires and blackouts for millions, with the state’s electricity grid coming close to meltdown as reserves dropped below 5 per cent.

Energy officials blamed the crisis on the intensive use of air-conditioning in homes and offices and the popularity of power-hungry plasma TVs.

Humans were not the only ones to suffer. According to California Dairies, the heat killed 16,500 cows or 1 per cent of the state’s dairy herd. Cows do not have sweat glands and produce less milk when they are overheated.

As a result milk production has been down by up to 20 per cent. Under normal circumstances California produces more milk than any other state, providing about 12 per cent of the country’s supply.

Among the 123 fatalities so far were a 38-year-old farm worker found in a field; an unidentified man who got himself to a hospital emergency room where his body temperature was 109.9F, and a 58-year-old man who had been drinking. The youngest casualty of the heat was 20, the oldest 95.

According to the California Department of Health Services, in the past fortnight there has been the largest number of heat-related deaths since 1989, when it began keeping records.

A poll conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California indicated that 63 per cent of respondents thought that global warming was taking effect. “Californians now rank global warming as more important than at any time since we first started asking about it in June of 2000,” said Mark Baldassare, the director of the survey.

“They are so concerned that two-thirds actually want the state to address this issue completely independent of the federal government.”

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