Multnomah County officials on Tuesday confirmed five people died from exposure to heat last summer, when temperatures soared into the 90s and above for the last eight straight days of July and in several shorter stretches in August.
Most of the deaths occurred in July and were men over 50, who were housed and lacked functioning fans or air conditioning. One person had a fan. One person was homeless. One person was a woman. Just one was under 50. Three of the people who died lived above the third floor of multi-family dwellings, county officials said.