KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Almost two dozen people were treated for heat-related illnesses on Tuesday after a crowd of around 500 people descended on the McKay's store in Knoxville as part of a "road trip" program the store was offering to celebrate its 50th anniversary.
"The Ultimate McKay's Road Trip" invited people to travel to McKay's five locations across Tennessee and North Carolina, collecting stamps along the way. Each store offered passports, and each store offered unique stamps visitors could collect.
If people visited all five stores on July 9 and collected a stamp, they could get a total grand prize of $800 in McKay's trade credit. They also could get a t-shirt, a travel mug, a snack pack and a commemorative poster.
The prizes proved tempting to hundreds of people in Knoxville, who lined up outside the store and down the road for a chance to participate in the program. At the same time, temperatures rose higher and higher. Heat index values were forecast to reach the triple-digits, prompting concerns for heat-related illnesses.
"When I heard $800 of free merchandise, it sounded neat and all. But it was really the $800 that called me," said Wesley Shelton, from Greensboro in North Carolina. "There was a line that looped around, like, twice through this part of the parking lot and then three times over in that parking lot over there, and then starting to go on to the street."
Mark Wilbanks, the assistant fire chief for the Knoxville Fire Department, said crews were called at around 4 p.m. for their second time Tuesday for medical emergencies in the parking lot.
"We had multiple people, in excess of 500 people, in the parking lot which were at a McKay's event. Unfortunately, all those folks were outside and approximately 23 of those folks were having some kind of heat emergency that we needed to attend to. So, what we did was basically pull in additional resources, bought in our mass casualty bus, some extra manpower and started treating those people," he said.
He said the fire department approached McKay's management after treating the people and had a discussion with them "about whether or not it was a good idea to continue doing what was going on this afternoon."
"They elected to go ahead and shut the process down. What they told folks were, 'If you were here in our parking lot today, you get the credit for being here — go on to the other stores,' which was great and that helped people move along," Wilbanks said.
He said when people are outside in temperatures like Tuesday's, people need to stay in the shade and stay hydrated. However, he said taking steps like bringing umbrellas or water bottles was not enough for people who stood on the asphalt.
"We're thankful that McKay's made a good decision this afternoon to stop this part of their event. It was a wise decision on their part because it was starting to get out of control, and they made the right call," said Wilbanks.
On social media, McKay's said the deadline to reach all five stores and claim the grand prize was extended until midnight. It also said stores would honor stamps visitors would have received in Knoxville.