A.V. MAN FIRST KNOWN DEATH IN HEAT WAVE.

Byline: CHARLES F. BOSTWICK Staff Writer

LANCASTER -- Los Angeles County's first heat-related death from a record heat spell was confirmed Thursday as a Antelope Valley man who was overcome while riding in a car with a friend.

Fifty-one-year-old Eldredge R. Kelsey Jr. had stayed in the vehicle with the door open when they arrived at a home in the desert east of Lancaster, and the friend called paramedics after checking on him 10 minutes later, a Los Angeles County coroner's official said.

``They were riding in a non-air-conditioned vehicle running errands,'' coroner spokesman Craig Harvey said. ``When they arrived at the residence he was lethargic and somewhat disoriented and remained in the vehicle with the door open.''

When the friend checked on him 10 minutes later, Kelsey was unresponsive, though still breathing.

Paramedics got to the home on 200th Street East, some 15 miles east of Lancaster, about 20 minutes after the 911 call and tried to resuscitate Kelsey but could not revive him. He was pronounced dead there.

An autopsy whose results were released Thursday indicated he died of hyperthermia -- overheating.

A half-dozen other deaths from around the county are suspected to be related to the recent heat spell, but autopsies have not yet been conducted on them so the causes of death remain unconfirmed, Harvey said.

Kelsey died Tuesday afternoon, when the temperature in Lancaster hit 110 degrees -- tying a 31-year-old record for the date and just two degrees below Lancaster's highest-ever temperature of 112 degrees, set July 9, 2002. Lancaster temperatures set or tied records for five days straight from Friday through Tuesday.

Deaths caused by heat are not common in Los Angeles County, Harvey said.

``If we have a half-dozen, that would be high,'' Harvey said.