The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office has responded to 127 probable drug overdose deaths since July 1, putting the county on track for a record 453 fatal overdoses this year.

That means that since July 1, the medical examiner's office responded to an average of one such death every 14 hours.

The morgue has been at or near capacity for almost the entire summer, driven mostly by overdose deaths, said Karen Domagalski, operations manager at the Medical Examiner’s Office.

Over just four days in July, the county saw 14 probable overdose deaths.

"If (the overdose deaths) don’t slow down, we probably could end up with more than 453," Domagalski said.

It's hard to know what's driving this spike in deaths, she said. There's not a lot in common between the cases.

She said the office is seeing more deaths involving cocaine, but it's mixed with other drugs.

Last year, there were 165 deaths involving cocaine. Just two years earlier, that number was 85.

The highest number of overdose deaths the county has seen was in 2017 with 401.

Contact Alison Dirr at 414-224-2383 or adirr@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter @AlisonDirr.