Local news

Springfield keeps cooling centers open into a sixth day

Six libraries and two schools are running late hours, and the city says the buses to them are free.

By Tomas Oyelaran · July 31, 2026

Springfield will keep its six cooling centers open through Sunday, after the National Weather Service extended its excessive heat warning for Hampden County to Saturday night. The city added two school buildings to the list on Wednesday and dropped fares on every PVTA route inside the city line.

The temperature at Westover hit 99 on Tuesday and 97 on Wednesday. Both nights stayed above 78, which is the part the health department keeps pointing at. A house that does not cool off overnight is a house that starts the next day already hot.

The libraries on the list are the Central branch on State Street, Forest Park, Mason Square, Indian Orchard, Brightwood and East Springfield. All six are staying open until 9 p.m. instead of their usual 5 or 6. The two schools, Kensington Middle and the Dorrance Street elementary building, opened their gyms at noon and run until 9 as well.

"We are not asking anybody to prove they live here and we are not asking anybody's name," said Yolanda Prieto, the city's public health commissioner. "You walk in, you sit down, there is water and there is air conditioning. That is the whole program."

The buses are free, and that was the hard part

Prieto said the fare suspension took longer to arrange than the buildings did. The city and the PVTA agreed Tuesday afternoon to waive fares on the 7, 9, 12, 14, 16, 22 and 48 through Sunday, with the city covering the lost revenue out of its emergency reserve. The estimate is $34,000 for the week.

Riders do not need a pass or a slip. Drivers were told to wave everyone on.

The reason is dull arithmetic. A round trip on the PVTA is $3.60, and the health department's survey last summer found that about a third of the people who skipped a cooling center during a heat spell skipped it over the fare or the walk. Mason Square library is a mile and a half from parts of Six Corners. In 97 degrees that walk is the emergency.

Ridership on the seven routes was up 22 percent Wednesday over the same Wednesday last July.

Who is showing up

The Central branch counted 611 people Wednesday, roughly triple a normal July weekday. Branch manager Curtis Vandenberg said the crowd is older than the summer crowd usually is and that most of them come in the late afternoon and stay until closing.

"They are not here for the books, and I have made my peace with that," Vandenberg said. "We put out folding chairs in the periodicals room and there are two card games running most nights."

Doreen Achebe, 74, has come to Forest Park four of the six days. She lives in a third-floor apartment off Belmont Avenue with one window unit that her landlord installed in 2019 and that she says has never cooled more than the one room.

"The bedroom is fine and the rest of it is an oven," Achebe said. "Last year I stayed home and I got dizzy on the stairs. This year I take the 9 down at three o'clock and I go home when they turn the lights off. My daughter calls me at eight to check."

Two calls the fire department did not want

Springfield Fire responded to 41 heat-related calls between Sunday and Wednesday night, against 12 in the same stretch last July. Deputy Chief Roland Kepler said two of those were serious, both older residents found in apartments without working air conditioning, both taken to Baystate and both since released.

Kepler said the department is doing welfare checks on a list of 340 addresses the health department and the senior center put together in the spring, mostly people over 70 living alone in buildings without central air. Crews have gotten to 290. The rest are on the list for Friday.

He also asked people to stop opening hydrants. Crews closed eleven Tuesday and nine Wednesday, and each open hydrant drops pressure across a few blocks.

"I understand exactly why people do it and I am still going to come shut it off," Kepler said. "There are three spray parks in this city and they are all running until eight."

What the forecast says

The weather service has Friday at 96 and Saturday at 94, with a chance of thunderstorms Saturday evening that would break the run. Sunday is forecast at 87, which is normal for the end of July and would feel like a mercy. The city said it will decide Sunday morning whether to hold the centers open into Monday.

Prieto said the schools cost about $2,200 a day in custodial overtime and the libraries about $1,400 in staff hours. Nobody at City Hall has asked her to justify it yet.

If you need a place to go

The six libraries and the two schools are open until 9 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Water is free at all eight. The senior center on Carew Street runs 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and has cots for anyone who wants to lie down.

The three spray parks, Van Horn, Emerson Wight and the one behind the Indian Orchard branch, run 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Anyone who needs a ride and cannot manage the bus can call the health department line at 413-555-0188 between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m., and the city will send a van. Prieto said the van has done 19 pickups this week and has room for more.