Southwest
Boy, 10, dies following rescue from Arizona hiking trail amid extreme heat
A 10-year-old boy has died in Arizona after being rescued from South Mountain, prompting officials to warn about the dangers of hiking in extreme heat, fire officials confirmed to Fox News Digital.
According to Phoenix Police Department Public Affairs Sergeant Brian Bower, crews were called just before 3 p.m. local time on Tuesday to the Mormon Trailhead on South Mountain, a centrally located mountain range in south Phoenix.
Authorities said that a boy was experiencing heat-related issues while hiking along the trail.
Footage obtained by FOX 10 showed a helicopter airlifting the child from the trail.
COUPLE MISSING IN UTAH MAY HAVE BEEN SWEPT AWAY IN FLASH FLOOD WHILE EXPLORING TRAIL ON UTV
The young boy was airlifted from the trail in Phoenix on Tuesday. (KSAZ)
Officials said that they found the boy about a mile up the trail, and he was airlifted down the mountain before being transported to the hospital.
“Police helicopter pilots assisted the fire department with an active mountain rescue and airlifted the 10-year-old victim from the mountain to an awaiting ambulance,” Bower said.
Firefighters previously said that initial reports indicated that the boy was on the trail for several hours, possibly since mid-morning before crews were called.
TEXAS HIKER DIES ON TRAIL AT GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK; OFFICIALS WARN ABOUT EXTREME HEAT
In an updated statement, police said that the boy was taken to the hospital in critical condition and later died as a result of a heat-related medical event.
“Further details into what led to this tragic incident are under investigation,” police said.
The child, identified as a 10-year-old boy, was found about one mile up the trail. (KSAZ)
The heat-related incident comes as Arizona — and the majority of the U.S. — has been impacted by sweltering high heat levels.
HIKER LOST FOR 10 DAYS FOUND ALIVE IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA MOUNTAINS
According to officials from the National Weather Service, Phoenix is experiencing a “severe weather alert” for high heat.
The high reached 113 degrees Fahrenheit on Tuesday, which is 6 degrees above average.
Portions of the U.S., including Arizona, are under heat warnings or advisories, as relentless, record-breaking temperatures continued to bake western and southern states. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)
Phoenix officials are urging both residents and visitors to be aware of the level of difficulty some trails on South Mountain present.
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“Some of these trails on South Mountain are pretty difficult. They’re pretty long, and if you’re an inexperienced hiker potentially from out of town, you may not be aware of the level of difficulty or how difficult they are,” DuBois said.
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A black bear was caught on camera roaming the yards of multiple Glendale homes Friday.
Video provided by a viewer shows the bear climbing onto a wall on the 3300 block of Paraiso Way, down the street from Valley View Elementary School, at around 4:15 p.m. The bear then sidesteps a gate and leaps down into the home’s backyard.
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A black bear hops a wall and jumps into a Glendale backyard on July 17, 2026. (Viewer-submitted video)
Glendale Police Department officers were seen following the bear as it made its way through the neighborhood. A resident had a brief encounter with the bear while they were walking their dog, the viewer who provided the video told KTLA. The resident, dog and bear were all unharmed, they said.
Residents in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains have said that bear sightings are more frequent since the Eaton Fire, which burned more than 14,000 acres in the Altadena area.
Watch footage of the bear in the video at the top of this story.
The driver of a Tesla Cybertruck was arrested for driving under the influence early Saturday morning following a pursuit that ended in a crash. According to a California Highway Patrol spokesperson, their officers were assisting the Los Angeles Police Department when the pursuit terminated along the westbound span of the 118 Freeway near De Soto […]
“Moana” has been called a box office flop, an unnecessary money grab by Walt Disney Studios, but what it hasn’t been called yet is a triumphant win for cultural representation on the big screen.
The live-action adaptation of the beloved 2016 animated movie “Moana” effectively bombed at the box office, making much less money than industry insiders anticipated.
While it failed to live up to the expectations of the box office and critics alike, the film did exceed the expectations of moviegoers of Pacific Island descent, and they’ve taken to social media to express just how much the movie means to them.
Moana is more than the main character’s name. It means ocean across several Pacific Islander languages.
One user explained how this kind of representation is more than entertainment.
“When I watched ‘Moana,’ I couldn’t hold back my tears. I heard the language of my parents, the language of my people. I saw our traditional Samoan clothing, our weaving, our siva, our culture, our values. I saw my people. I saw me.”
Another user said seeing Pacific Islanders on the silver screen influenced her own artistry.
“Representation matters. As a sometimes-Female-Polynesian-filmmaker (depending on the day and my imposter syndrome), seeing our stories on a screen this big makes me dream a little bigger too.”
Even the film’s star, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, spoke to the film’s representation in a recent Instagram post.
“I feel that our movie ‘Moana’ will always serve a bigger purpose than just a film – it’s representation. Our Polynesian culture showcased to the world, and embraced by the world – with love, humility, warrior spirit and MANA.”
That representation was taken as a serious responsibility by the actors and creative team behind the scenes of Disney’s latest live-action remake.
“We got chosen for a reason,” Rena Owen, who plays Gramma Tala in the film, explains.
“Every single one of us, whether that’s an actor, whether that’s a creative, whether that’s a crew person. We’re raised that way, we’re raised in villages and we’re raised… on our earth, with our sky father and our moana, that’s what we all have in common. So, we just had to be ourselves.”
Disney once again leaned on members of its Oceanic Cultural Trust, a group formed over a decade ago to ensure cultural accuracy for the first “Moana” movie.
The trust’s lead consultant, Dr. Grant Muāgututiʻa, spoke about the work that went into bringing Moana to life on screen.
“We have a big responsibility to our folks who are gonna be watching the film. We’re elated that the film crew and the filmmakers were really receptive to all of the input that we had and we’re really happy with the way it turned out.”
Dr. Muāgututiʻa is a linguist by trade, serving as Assistant Professor of Linguistics at California State University San Marcos. He told KTLA he was thrilled that people of Samoan descent can hear their language spoken in a major Disney film.
“The mountaintop scene where you can hear both Jon Tui, who plays Chief Tui, and Catherine Laga’aia, who plays Moana speaking Samoan. And then the Siva Tau scene, where Seiuli Dwayne Johnson also speaks Samoan. I think those are special moments that are new, especially for our people to see. They’re able to experience real islanders that are proud of their culture.”
“Moana” Choreographer and Cultural Trust member Tiana Nonosina Liufau agreed.
“Seeing an all-Pasifika cast, and hearing them, there’s a lot of Mana in that, hearing these words come out of their mouth, something audiences can trace back to their genealogy, that’s priceless. All worth it.”
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