
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, August 6, 1995                   TAG: 9508070061
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short

CHEERLEADERS OVERCOME BY HEAT

Twenty-two cheerleaders between the ages of 8 and 14 were treated for heat exhaustion Saturday by firefighters flagged down from the road by a frantic mother, a fire official said.

Eighteen of the girls were taken to area hospitals as a precaution after receiving treatment on the scene, Chesterfield Fire Department battalion chief Dennis Rubin said. The others refused further treatment.

All of the girls were released within a few hours, officials said.

The firefighters, who had responded to a report of a brush fire, were returning to the station just before 2:30 p.m. when the woman ran out into the street waving for them to help.

``She had a child that was overheated and showing all the signs of overexposure to the heat,'' Rubin said. While the firefighters were treating the first child, another began complaining of the same symptoms.

``Before we knew it, one had become two, two had become 10,'' he said.

He said the girls were demonstrating the usual symptoms of heat exhaustion, including nausea, vomiting, headaches and body aches.

The girls were taken into the auditorium of Lloyd C. Bird High School, treated with fluids and given medical evaluations by the firemen, he said.

Rubin said more than 50 fire, police and rescue workers spent more than two hours on the scene. It took 12 ambulances to transport the girls to Medical College of Virginia, Chippenham and Johnston-Willis hospitals.

Richmond reached a high of 97 degrees on Saturday, the record 26th consecutive day that temperatures have been 90 or higher. The previous record for the area was 19 straight days of 90 degrees or more, set in 1993.

by CNB