Wilmer Vasquez is a sociable extrovert. “He was a very outgoing person,” recalled his ex-girlfriend Rose Carvajal. He died in 2023 at the age of 29 while working as a roofer during record-breaking August heat in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Ross Carvajal
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Ross Carvajal
Yonatan Vasquez has been best friends with his brother Wilmer since childhood.
Not that they are that similar. The younger son, Wilmer, is an outgoing person. “He just wanted to be with people,” Yonatan said. “He was always encouraging people and making sure they were doing well. He loved being the center of attention.
The brothers often worked together as roofers in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with Wilmer serving as a DJ for others on the crew. “He would dance on the rooftops,” Yonatan recalled with a laugh.
That’s not Yonatan. “I can care less about other people,” he said. “I’m the complete opposite.” The brothers’ differences also extend to their interests. “He likes rap music and I like classic rock. He knows a lot about sports and movies. I like scientific stuff,” Yonatan said.
However, they were close. It’s like Wilmer understands how Yonatan feels, even if Yonatan doesn’t say it out loud. “There’s just a certain understanding there,” he said. “We have the same wavelength, but different vibrations.”
Despite their differences, both brothers ended up in the roofing business. Their father and multiple uncles were also roofers, so it was a family occupation. Although Yonatan said he hoped that wasn’t the case.
“Honestly, I wish I had chosen a different career path,” he said. “I’d rather be someone else.” Wilmer has a young son, and Yonatan said that when the boy grew up, he would encourage him to avoid roofing jobs. “We don’t need third-generation roofers,” he said. “It’s hard work.”
Yonatan Vasquez and his brother are only one year apart and are very close. Jonathan and Wilmer’s earliest memories are of arguing over who should sleep on the top bunk in the bedroom.
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Yonatan said summer is the most dangerous time for roofers. Temperatures in South Florida can often be very hot during the summer. Human-caused climate change is causing more intense and longer heat waves, and people who work outdoors are the most vulnerable to fatal heat illnesses.
Working on a roof is especially painful. Without shade, workers often had to use hot materials. “If you touch one of the tiles, your hand will get burned,” Yonatan said. “Especially asphalt shingles, they absorb a lot of heat.”
In places with lots of humidity, like Florida, things can turn deadly quickly. That’s what killed Wilmer last summer, Yonatan said. He worries he might be next.
Wilmer Vasquez with Rose Carvajal and son Sebastian. “He was very excited to be a father,” Carvajal said, and loved taking his younger son fishing.
Ross Carvajal
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A normal day at work turns deadly
In the months before Wilmer’s death, Yonatan had been trying to convince his brother to leave the roofing business. He said he and his brother both turned to alcohol to cope with physical and emotional stress. They all suffered from muscle cramps and dizziness during hot workdays, but Wilmer was more likely to experience the condition.
“I thought, ‘Maybe try the factory. Try something. [where] You work inside because I don’t think you can handle what’s going on outside,” Yonatan remembers advising his brother.
But Wilmer didn’t believe it. “[He was], for example, ‘No, but if I were a truck driver, I wouldn’t talk to anyone. It was just me,” Yonatan recalled. Wilmer’s outgoing personality didn’t lend itself well to solo indoor work.
Like his brother Wilmer, Yonatan Vasquez worked as a roofer in South Florida. Summer weather often gets so hot, he said, that he suffers from dehydration, muscle cramps and other symptoms of heatstroke.
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Last July and August were the hottest on record in South Florida. Neighboring Miami’s heat index, which includes temperature and humidity, was above 100 degrees Fahrenheit for 46 days in a row.
On August 21, 2023, both Jonathan and Wilmer went to work as usual. Yonatan remembers it being a humid day, with temperatures in the low 90s.
Wilmer was assigned to deliver roof tiles in the morning, then around noon he climbed onto the roof and installed wood along the eaves. Yonatan completed work at another location, and sometime that afternoon, he started receiving calls from Wilmer’s coworkers.
“I remember people calling me [saying]’Hey, how’s your brother doing? He was really cramping today, man,” Yonatan recalled.
Someone gave Wilmer a ride home. Jonathan could see that his brother was sick from the heat. His muscles cramped and he felt dizzy. He didn’t want to be in an air-conditioned place. “Any time we put an air conditioner or a fan on him, he would tell us to take it away,” Yonatan said.
Even if the body is overheated, muscle cramps, dizziness, and feeling cold are all common symptoms of severe heat illness.
Wilmer’s condition worsened overnight and he died at the hospital the next morning. Yonatan was his brother’s emergency contact, so he was the first to find out.
“I didn’t really cry until the doctor told my mom,” he said, then fell silent for a moment.
Yonatan Vasquez fears the dangerously hot weather will take his life, just as it took his brother’s. When he works, he has given up drinking completely and wears breathable long-sleeved shirts with UV protection, a face mask, a wide-brimmed hat and sunglasses to protect himself from rising temperatures due to climate change.
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“My mom, her soul left her body. She looked right at me. Her look was like, ‘Are you serious?’ “I said, ‘This is true,'” he recalled. “That’s when I think I broke down.”
Wilmer Vasquez is 29 years old.
When climate change threatens your career and life
Yonatan said it was clear to him that climate change played a huge role in his brother’s death.
“I have to explain my brother’s death to people: because this was the hottest year on record,” Yonatan said.
Wilmer Vasquez died in August 2023 after working outdoors with his son Sebastian. “I have to explain to people that my brother died because this was the hottest year ever,” said his brother Yonatan. “People don’t understand how hot it is.”
Ross Carvajal
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But he said many of his friends and family still don’t understand how hot it is or how dangerous the heat can be.
“It’s only going to get worse,” Yonatan said. “People don’t understand how hot it is. Because they’re in air conditioning when they work. When they get in the car, it’s air conditioning. When they go home and work, it’s air conditioning. They just feel [the heat] There are about 20 minutes in a whole day. They don’t understand how much your body has to work when you feel like it’s 10 to 12 hours a day.
Yonatan fears the heat will kill him too. Summer is only going to get hotter. While heat-related worker protections across the U.S. are patchy at best, Florida took steps earlier this year to bar local governments in the state from passing laws requiring breaks, water and shade for workers like Yonatan. Dangerously hot weather.
Yonatan thought a lot about getting out of the roofing business. He said maybe he could work in IT. During this time, he stopped drinking and became more careful about his diet. He wears long-sleeved clothing and a sunhat to protect himself from the sun while working.
“I wouldn’t live past 40 if I didn’t change a lot of things in my life,” he said. “My brother hasn’t lived past 30 yet. I don’t want my mother to bury another son.”
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