Mississippi Worker Collapses, Dies from Heat

MOSS POINT, Miss. - Jackson County coroner Vicki Broadus says an autopsy shows a 48-year-old construction worker has died of hyperthermia.

Broadus says the worker collapsed and died Monday on a Moss Point street. It was the second heat death reported in Mississippi since the weekend. Temperatures have topped 100 degrees in some parts of the state.

The worker's name was not immediately released, pending notification of relatives.

In northern Mississippi's Monroe County, Coroner Alan Gurley said the body of 81-year-old Earnestine Fields was found Saturday on the back porch of a relative's house near Hamilton.

Gurley said Fields died of a heat stroke, with her age and other unspecified medical problems as contributing factors.