French visitor dies in Death Valley after vehicle breaks down amid blistering heat

A French visitor to California has died after his vehicle broke down on a remote road in scorching Death Valley heat.

Pierre Michel Formosa, 68, and another Frenchman were driving on Monday on rugged West Side Road in the isolated southern reaches of Death Valley National Park when their vehicle became stuck in mud near Queen of Sheba Mine Road.

Given how desolate the area is, the pair set out on foot to get help, making it about 1.3 miles across infernal salt flats before Formosa was “unable to continue,” according to a statement by the National Park Service.

The other man left him there and ultimately reached Badwater Road, where a passing driver provided assistance, the statement said. At around 2 p.m., the man reported the incident at a visitor center miles north of where the men’s vehicle had broken down.

At 2:13 p.m., Park Service rangers and an Inyo County deputy launched a search for Formosa that later included a California Highway Patrol helicopter, according to the statement. The man was declared dead on the scene after his body was found later that afternoon about one and a half miles away from Badwater Road. The cause and manner of his death will be determined by Inyo County’s coroner.

“Our deepest condolences are with the family and friends of the visitor who died,” Mike Reynolds, superintendent of Death Valley National Park, said in the statement. “This is a heartbreaking reminder of how quickly conditions here can turn dangerous. Death Valley is an extraordinary place, but its heat, distances, and remoteness can be dangerous, regardless of experience.”

SoCal forecasters warn region faces its hottest week of the year, with triple-digit temperatures expected across L.A. and valley areas.

The national park, which is known as one of the hottest places on Earth, has seen its share of heat-related deaths in recent years, with at least half a dozen people, mostly in their 60s or older, dying since 2020, often as temperatures exceeded 120 degrees.

News of Formosa’s death comes as Southern California braces for another week of extreme heat that weather forecasters have predicted will be the hottest yet in this already very hot year.

France has undergone its own extreme weather in recent months. Wildfires near the southwestern city of Bordeaux have forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people in what French President Emmanuel Macron has deemed an “unprecedented” crisis and the country’s worst fire-related disaster since World War II.