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Workers at a Amazon.com warehouse that was at the center of complaints of excessive heat last summer were treated for exposure to below-freezing temperatures a year ago following fire-alarm evacuations, according to a new report.

The Morning Call newspaper in Allentown, Penn., says Amazon responded by updating its procedures to allow workers to more quickly reenter the warehouse after alarms. Amazon also has a policy to give workers hats, blankets and hand warmers, according to the report.

The newspaper reported that workers were treated at the hospital after being exposed to sub-freezing temperatures in November and December 2010 when the warehouse was evacuated by three fire alarms.

Workers at the Pennsylvania workplace said the thermometer soared above 100 degrees and bosses pressure workers to clock in long days, according to a report this summer by The Morning Call newspaper, which interviewed past and present workers at Amazon’s warehouse in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley.

Amazon spent $2.4 million “urgently installing” industrial air conditioning units in four warehouses, including Amazon’s Breinigsville, Penn., facility that was at the center of worker complaints.

Amazon has ramped up its plans for its massive distribution centers and has opened 16 so far in 2011, with one more planned opening by the end of the year. That would bring the total to 69.

Amazon’s warehouses are becoming destinations for “workampers” -- people who travel the country working seasonal or short-term jobs. Retailers go on a seasonal hiring spree during the holidays, and Amazon does the same at its distribution centers as it scrambles to fulfill an influx of orders.

Amazon is said to be the largest employer of workampers. The company even provides campground space at distribution centers in Nevada, Kentucky and Kansas.