Editor’s note: This story has been updated as the number of suspected heat deaths in Oregon’s most populous county has climbed.
Multnomah County health officials are investigating a sixth death they believe was caused by this week’s extreme heat.
The person was reported dead on Friday in North Portland.
Since Friday, the county has announced three suspected heat-related deaths, including two from Northeast Portland. Three other suspected deaths were announced earlier in the week. In each case, it may take weeks or even months for a formal cause of death to be declared.
Donielle Augustson is the lead deputy medicolegal death investigator for the Multnomah County Medical Examiner’s Office, and is among the people responsible for investigating sudden, unexpected, violent or suspicious deaths in the county. That work doesn’t change when temperatures spike; investigators are responsible for collecting all available evidence from a scene.
Some of the basic facts Augustson and her colleague seek in each case relate directly to the weather.
“It doesn’t matter if a case is at 100 degrees or at 80 degrees, I’m still going in and noting the temperature of the room, the temperature of the outside, being aware if we’re outside or we’re inside, if there’s AC, if there’s not AC,” she said Friday. “Basically, we are the eyes and ears of the medical examiners. So everything we see, we document.”
Summer heat also caused five deaths last year in Multnomah County. The June 2021 heat dome killed 96 people across Oregon. Most were older, alone and lacked air conditioning.
Although more temperate weather has returned to the Portland region, it still may be some time before health officials have a full accounting of how many people died in this year’s heat. Temperatures hit triple digits for several days this week, including 108 degrees in Portland on Monday.
In addition to heat, people in Oregon and Washington have been dealing with poor air quality. And in Portland, health officials are still warning people to avoid the Willamette River from the Ross Island Lagoon to Cathedral Park because of a potentially toxic algae bloom.
