Alejandra Hernandez stands next to a bag of donated clothes which are on their way to agricultural workers in Hammett, Idaho. The clothes are intended to help the farmworkers deal with the record breaking high temperatures in Idaho this summer. Latinx Farmworkers of Southern Idaho is part of the Idaho Immigrant Resource Alliance (IIRA), who fundraises yearly and distributes funds among community leaders who purchase cooling and hydrating items for workers. The community leaders then go out and distribute these items to job or housing sites all over southern Idaho and other areas. (Photo by Kyle Green | InvestigateWest).
In a historic heatwave that covered the Northwest in June 2021, two workers died.
Sebastian Francisco Perez, a 38-year-old Guatemalan immigrant, collapsed in 100-degree heat while moving irrigation lines outside at a farm and nursery in St. Paul, Oregon. Just 500 miles away, a few days later, Ian Booth, a 33-year-old Idahoan working on a landscaping crew near Lewiston, Idaho, died of cardiac arrest from heat exposure.