Rough sleeper fatality worries in Bridlington and the East Riding
Homelessness charity Emmaus has been providing support over the last few days
A homelessness charity in Bridlington and the East Riding says they have been concerned about possible deaths due to the hot weather.
Emmaus has been providing extra support over the last few days across the county and in Hull.
It says local churches also opened their doors to give shelter to rough sleepers.
Alex Slater, the finance and outreach manager, said: "We serviced all of the rough sleepers in the East Riding area; up to Bridlington down to Withernsea, Goole, Howden, Beverley and anybody who was in need and was sleeping rough at that time. We made sure they had not just bottled water, but we gave our baseball caps, sun tan lotions and we also encouraged them to move away from pavements.
"We were able to educate as well, especially in Bridlington, because the churches opened their doors as well so they managed to get away from the severe intensity and were able to go inside to take refuge in the churches. We had water points at those places as well so they had been able to stop, get in from the sun's rays and get rested.
"We have entrenched rough sleepers. There are those individuals who it's their choice to sleep rough and to sleep on the streets, that's their prerogative. We wouldn't typically see them everyday but we'd welfare check in with them once to twice a week to make sure they're OK, but the last few days especially we wanted to make sure we got around every single person quickly.
"We were really concerned that we could have had fatalities if we didn't get to people and people weren't educated enough to know that these were ridiculously huge temperatures that had never been recorded before, so we needed to get out there quickly and educate those that were on the streets that it wasn't like a normal summer for us, they weren't very hot temperatures, they were off the scale."
For more information about Emmaus and how to call them if you see someone in need, visit their website: https://emmaushull.org/