KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The KSHB 41 Weather Team said the end of this week’s heat wave is in sight after Kansas Citians faced triple digit heat.
But it hasn’t stopped some from working outside in these conditions.
“Just trying to keep everybody cool is all we can do,” Fabian Marquez said. “We are all out here, it’s not easy, but we get it done and just do the best we can.”
Marquez is the site manager for The Better Wash on Barry Road, a family-owned car wash chain in the Kansas City area.
He said keeping his employees cool is crucial.
“We do have waters for everybody, we have some ice pops, some ice cream, sports drinks, everything like that,” he said. “We do have a booth over there that’s air conditioned.”
Employees like Carter Massions said he hydrates and takes shade breaks.
“The heat has been pretty bad this week,” he said.
But a lot of what he does is outdoors and in the sun.
“We do try to rotate people around as much as possible, so we don’t have one person outside or in the tunnel area the whole time,” he said.
The tunnel cars go through to get clean is in the shade, but it’s actually even hotter.
“In the tunnel it does get really hot and humid because of all the hot chemical and everything like that,” Marquez said.
Because of the additional humidity and hot water used for cars, the crew said it can get up to 15 to 20 degrees hotter in the tunnel than it is outside.
While clean cars are top of mind, so is their safety.
“It has been pretty hot, but we’re still trying to take care of ourselves and each other as well,” Massions said.
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