Authorities warned that efforts to find and identify the dead are still in their infancy, as the death toll from a wildfire that devastated the historic town of Maui rose to 93.
The fire is already the deadliest wildfire in the United States in more than a century.
Maui Police Chief John Pelletier said Saturday that teams with sniffer dogs covered just 3 percent of the search area, according to the Associated Press. He added, “We have an area that we must annex that is not less than 8 square kilometers, and it is full of our loved ones,” noting that the death toll is likely to increase and “none of us really knows its size yet.” Pelletier said that identifying the dead is a challenge because “we pick up the remains and they disintegrate.” He added that the remains were from “a fire that melted the metal,” noting that only two people have been identified so far.
Pelletier spoke as federal emergency workers moved through a vast expanse of ash left by the fires that destroyed the centuries-old city of Lahaina. Teams marked house ruins with a bright orange “X” to indicate an initial search, and an “HR” when they found human remains.
Touring the devastation on historic Front Street, Gov. Josh Green said:
It would certainly be the worst natural disaster Hawaii has ever faced. We can only wait and support those who live. Our focus now is on bringing people together when possible and providing them with housing and health care, and then we move on to rebuilding.” At least 2,200 structures have been damaged or destroyed in western Maui, almost all of them residential.
Damage across the island was estimated at $6 billion.
The death toll from wildfires in Hawaii has risen to 53
At least two other fires have burned on the island of Maui: in the Kihei region of southern Maui and in the inland mountain communities known as the Up Country. No deaths have been reported from those fires.
Green said the rural fire affected 544 structures, most of them homes.
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2023-08-14 04:46:08
