OLYMPIA –Parents who would never consider leaving their child out in freezing winter weather may not be as aware of the dangers associated with the kind of triple-digit heat that had much of Washington sweltering this week.

The Department of Social and Health Services Children's Administration, Mary Bridge Children's Hospital, pediatricians and other child safety professionals caution against leaving anyone, especially children, in a vehicle.

"Those of us living in Western Washington are just not used to the kind of heat we are now experiencing," said Randy Hart, Interim Assistant Secretary, DSHS Children's Administration. We remind people about the dangers of leaving a child in a vehicle as temperatures rise – a child can die very quickly from exposure to high heat in a car. Children should never be left unattended in a car.

"If you see a child or children unattended in a closed car, you can help save a life by calling 9-1-1 to report this type of emergency," he added.

When sunlight and heat get trapped inside a parked car, a vehicle's windows will act like a greenhouse. Cracking the car window will not reduce the vehicle's temperature to a life-sustaining safe level. On an 80-degree day the temperature can rapidly reach up to 131 degrees. In just 10 minutes, a child's body temperature can go as high as 106 degrees, leading to damage to the brain and vital organs, heat stroke, dehydration, seizures and death, according to the American College of Emergency Physicians.

Already in the United States this year there have been 21 deaths of infants caused by being left inside a hot vehicle. There are no records of the near-fatalities or statistics that document the life-long medical issues experienced by many survivors of this kind of trauma.

"Fortunately, we seldom see true hyperthermia and heat stroke in the Puget Sound region. This week, however, may be an exception," says Dr. Tom Hurt, Medical Director for the Pediatric Emergency Department at Mary Bridge Children's Hospital. "With air temperatures in the 90's, parking lot temperatures can easily exceed 110 degrees. The blacktop retains heat and the car can quickly become an oven.

"A plan to run into the store for only a few minutes may easily turn into a longer period. It’s easy to get distracted. A 20-30 minute span of time, though seemingly brief, is long enough for a disaster to happen. It's absolutely vital that we don’t leave our children unattended in the car," Hurt cautioned.

Washington has already experienced one child fatality this year, in Lakewood, when a mother left her child alone in the car for five hours while she was at work. On that April day the temperature was a relatively mild 69 degrees.

Perhaps surprising to most parents and caregivers is that the majority of child fatalities that are a result of a child being left in a parked car are not caused by parents who have a record of child abuse or neglect with Child Protective Services or law enforcement, or even intentionally leave the child in a parked car for any amount of time.

A study published in Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, reveals that half of the children and infants left in cars were simply forgotten about by otherwise cautious and well-intentioned parents and caregivers. It can happen when a parent used to dropping off their baby at daycare becomes momentarily distracted and lulled into thinking the child has been dropped off or that the other parent has the child or that they brought the child into the house after an errand.

The phenomenon is likened to the experience of forgetting otherwise common routines and thinking they have been done. In many cases the parent's first realization was when they went to day care to pick the child up at the end of the day only to then discover the child still strapped into their car-seat.

Laura Miccile supervisor for the Mary Bridge Center for Childhood Safety advises, "No one ever thinks they could forget their child in the backseat, but it can happen -- especially when parents are tired, distracted or have changed their regular travel pattern or routine. To help prevent this, parents can place something that they'll need at their next stop in the backseat by their child, so they will be sure to look for it in the backseat before they leave the car."

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