PORTLAND, Ore. — Hyperthermia was been ruled out as the cause of a person's death in Portland initially thought to be heat related, Multnomah County officials said Saturday.
The person died Thursday, Aug. 12, the same day temperatures in Portland hit 103 degrees. Officials had suspected the death was possibly related to the heat wave that hit the region earlier this week.
There have been no deaths linked to the hot temperatures in Multnomah County this week.
Temperatures are no longer expected to break into the triple digits in the Portland metro area this weekend. Wildfire smoke that has moved into the area is keeping temperatures down.
Ahead of this week's triple-digit temperatures, Gov. Kate Brown declared a state of emergency to make additional resources available. A number of cities and counties opened cooling centers for people escape the heat.
Earlier this summer, at least 96 people in Oregon died as the result of the historic heat wave in June, which brought record temperatures multiple days in a row, peaking at 116 degrees on June 28. At least 62 ofthose heat-related deaths were in Multnomah County.
Officials said prior to June's heat wave, Multnomah County recorded only two deaths due to hyperthermia since 2010 — one in 2016 and one in 2018.