Gainesville — The current heat can’t be beaten, but officials insist local residents should keep up the fight.

Temperatures climbed into the triple-digits during the past week — and are forecast to stay in or near that domain through the month, with expected rises in July and August.

And while the heat safety tips of hydration and frequent breaks while outdoors may seem obvious, they bear repeating.

“Hopefully, people are taking precautions,” said Gayla Blanton, director of marketing at North Texas Medical Center (NTMC). “Last summer was so hot that we saw a number of people working outdoors getting overheated, and we expect to see that now, if temperatures continue to rise. That’s typical of us.”

Blanton said her hospital hasn’t treated any life-threatening cases of overheating, such as heat strokes, in recent years. But heat exhaustion cases sometimes occur locally, and Blanton said this appears to be most common among outdoor workers such as construction and road laborers.

“They think they’re drinking enough,” she said. “And sometimes they’ve just underestimated their fluids.”

Blanton said a typical heat exhaustion patient receives ice packs and cooling blankets in efforts to lower temperature, and the situation is easily resolved. But heat stroke victims — unconscious, severely reddened, skin hot and dry to the touch — are more dire emergency patients who require intravenous saline drips.

“If they’re coming into the ER, they need more than just Gatorade,” she said.

Blanton said heat exhaustion prevention tips are simple: plenty of fluids and breaks when working outdoors. She credited organizations such as the Texas Department of Transportation, who have made mandates out of those tips.

“They take precautions,” she said. “They make their workers take plenty of breaks and they have tons of water on their trucks in this kind of heat.”

Jason Ewing of Ewing Heating & Air, who works indoors and outdoors, said he relies on plenty of water and wet neck wraps to help him handle his tasks. He also admitted summer months are reliable boosters to his business, explaining that heat waves are always the make-or-break test for air conditioners.

“It’s going to run to the extreme and you’ll find out pretty quick if the unit is going to handle it during this heat,” he said.

Ewing added that during a weather-related rush, his Gainesville company serves between five and eight customers per day, and that in his case, having fewer of them is better than having more.

“If you try and see 10 to 15 customers in a day, you’re going to be doing a lot of shortcutting,” he said.

Cooke County Fire Marshal Ray Fletcher said the county emergency offices get a steady share of calls related to victims of overheating. He said not much can be done for the situation beyond advising residents to take the reliable steps to stay cool and hydrated.

“Most people around here are used to it, because we’ve lived with it all along,” Fletcher said.

The fire marshal also added that in spite of the high temperatures, the summer’s local moisture levels have been agreeable so far. Rains during spring months and June have kept the county in better stead than experienced during 2011, where scorching heat and dry conditions turned Cooke County into an arid region of brown and yellow grasslands.

During 2012, county officials have been able to avoid instituting burn bans since sporadic heavy rains have moistened the grounds, and Fletcher said this is desired.

“We hope for more intermittent rain as the summer continues,” he said. “An inch or two every few weeks is enough to keep it green and keep us out of that fire danger. But whether that happens is anyone’s guess. We’ll continue to monitor and act accordingly.”