Wilmer Vasquez was a gregarious extrovert. “She was a very outgoing person,” recalls his ex-girlfriend Rose Carvajal. He died in 2023 at just 29 years old after working outdoors as a roofer in record August heat in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Rose Carvajal
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Rose Carvajal
Ever since they were little, Yonatan Vasquez was his brother Wilmer’s best friend.
It wasn’t that they were so similar. Wilmer, the youngest, was extroverted. “He just wanted to be with people,” Yonatan says. “He was always encouraging people, making sure they were doing good. He loved being the center of attention.
The brothers often worked together as roofers in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Wilmer DJed for the other members of the work crew. “He was dancing on the roof,” Yonatan remembers with a laugh.
It’s not Yonatan. “I don’t care about people,” he said. “I’m the complete opposite.” The brothers’ differences extended to their hobbies. “He loved rap, I loved classic rock. He knew a lot about sports and cinema. I like science stuff,” Yonatan says.
And yet, they were close. It was as if Wilmer understood how Yonatan felt, even if Yonatan didn’t say it. “There was just some understanding there,” he says. “We had the same wavelength but different vibrations.”
Despite their differences, the two brothers found themselves in the roofing industry. Their father had also been a roofer, as had several uncles, so it was sort of the family trade. Although Yonatan says he wishes that wasn’t the case.
“Honestly, I wish I had chosen a different career path,” he says. “I would rather be something else.” Wilmer has a young son, and Yonatan says that when the boy grows up, he will encourage him to avoid a career in the roofing trade. “We don’t need a third-generation roofer,” he says. “This is a difficult work.”
Yonatan Vasquez and his brother were only a year apart and extremely close. Yonatan’s first memory of Wilmer was arguing over who would get the top bunk in their room.
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Ryan Kellman/NPR
Summer is the most dangerous time for roofers, Yonatan says. During the summer, temperatures in South Florida regularly become extremely high. Human-caused climate change is causing more intense heat waves that last longer, and people who work outdoors are among the most at risk from deadly heat-related illnesses.
Working on a roof is particularly difficult. There is no shade and workers often have to work with hot materials. “If you touch one of the tiles, it burns your hands,” says Yonatan. “Especially asphalt shingles, which absorb a lot of heat. »
And in places with high humidity, like Florida, conditions can quickly become deadly. That’s what killed Wilmer last summer, Yonatan said. He fears he’ll be next.
Wilmer Vasquez, seen here with Rose Carvajal and their son Sebastian. “He was very excited about becoming a dad,” Carvajal says, and loved taking his young son fishing.
Rose Carvajal
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Rose Carvajal
A normal workday has turned deadly
In the months before Wilmer’s death, Yonatan had tried to convince his brother to leave the roofing business. He says he and his brother coped with stress – physical and emotional – by drinking too much. They both suffered from muscle cramps and dizziness on hot work days, but it happened more often to Wilmer.
“I’m like, ‘Maybe try a factory.’ Try something (where) you work inside, because I don’t think you can handle outside,” Yonatan remembers suggesting to his brother.
But Wilmer wasn’t convinced. “(He was) like, ‘No, but if I’m a truck driver, I’m not going to talk to anyone.’ Just me by myself,” Yonatan recalls. Solitary indoor work did not suit Wilmer’s outgoing personality.
Like his brother Wilmer, Yonatan Vasquez works as a roofer in South Florida. He says the weather often becomes dangerously hot in the summer and he suffers from dehydration, muscle cramps and other signs of heat-related illness.
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This past July and August were the hottest on record in South Florida. The heat index, which incorporates both temperature and humidity, was above 100 degrees Fahrenheit for 46 consecutive days in nearby Miami.
On August 21, 2023, Yonatan and Wilmer got to work as usual. Yonatan remembers it was a humid day, with temperatures in the 90s.
Wilmer was assigned to deliver tiles in the morning, then around noon he got up on a roof to install lumber along the eaves. Yonatan finished his work at another site, and at some point in the afternoon he began receiving calls from Wilmer’s co-workers.
“I remember people calling me (saying), ‘Hey, how’s your brother?’ He really cramped today, man,’” Yonatan recalled.
Someone took Wilmer home. Yonatan could see that his brother was sick from the heat. His muscles cramped, he felt dizzy. He didn’t want to be in air-conditioned spaces. “Every time we put the air conditioning on him or a fan, he would tell us to take it off,” Yonatan said.
Muscle cramps, dizziness and feeling cold, even if the body is overheating, are common symptoms of serious heat illness.
Wilmer’s condition worsened overnight and he died in hospital the next morning. Yonatan was his brother’s emergency contact, so he was the first to find out.
“I didn’t really cry until the doctor told my mom,” he said, before falling silent for a moment.
Yonatan Vasquez fears the dangerously hot weather could cost him his life like it did his brother. He has completely stopped drinking alcohol and wears breathable long-sleeved shirts with UV protection, a face mask, a wide-brimmed hat and sunglasses when working to protect himself from rising temperatures due to to climate change.
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Ryan Kellman/NPR
“My mother, her soul left her body. And she looked me straight in the eyes. His face says, “Are you real?” “And I’m like, ‘It’s true,'” he recalls. “That’s when I think I broke down.”
Wilmer Vasquez was 29 years old.
When climate change threatens your career and your life
Yonatan says it’s obvious to him that climate change played a major role in his brother’s death.
“I have to explain to people that my brother died: it was because it was the hottest year on record,” says Yonatan.
Wilmer Vasquez, seen here with his son Sebastian, died after working outdoors in August 2023. July and August were the hottest on record in South Florida. “I have to explain to people that my brother died, and it’s because it was the hottest year on record,” says his brother Yonatan. “People don’t understand how hot it is.”
Rose Carvajal
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Rose Carvajal
But he says many of his friends and family members still don’t understand how hot it is and how dangerous the heat can be.
“It’s only going to get worse,” Yonatan said. “People don’t understand how hot it is. Because when they work, it’s in the air conditioning. When they walk to their car, it’s air conditioning. When they go home, to work, it’s air conditioning. They only feel (the heat) 20 minutes a day. They don’t understand, when you feel it 10 to 12 hours a day, how hard your body has to work.
Yonatan fears that the heat will also cost him his life. Summers are only getting hotter. And although heat-related worker protections are spotty at best across the United States, Florida took the step earlier this year to prohibit the state’s local governments from passing laws that would require workers like Yonatan benefit from breaks, water and access to shade. dangerously hot days.
Yonatan thought a lot about getting out of the roofing business. Maybe he could work in IT, he said. In the meantime, he has stopped drinking alcohol and is more careful about what he eats and drinks. He wears long sleeves and a sun hat to protect himself from the sun while he works.
“If I don’t change a lot of things in my life, I won’t make it past forty,” he says. “My brother is not past thirty. I don’t want my mother to bury another son.”
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