US: Death toll in Hawaii wildfire reaches 93, deadliest in 100 years
Aug 13, 2023
Hawaii [US], August 13 : Making it the deadliest US wildfire in 100 years, the death toll from Hawaii's Maui wildfires has increased to 93 on Saturday, reported Al Jazeera.
According to officials, the death toll might even increase as the search teams are searching through the ruins of Lahaina town on Maui island. The town was home to over 12,000 people and has been reduced to ruins. Whereas, the lively hotels and restaurants turned into ashes.
Governor Josh Green said the number of confirmed deaths from the Maui wildfires had risen to 89, making it the deadliest US wildfire in more than 100 years. Maui County later raised the confirmed death toll to 93, Al Jazeera reported.
“It’s going to continue to rise. We want to brace people for that,” Green told reporters.
“It will certainly be the worst natural disaster that Hawaii ever faced,” Green said as he toured the devastation on historic Front Street.
The latest figure exceeded the 85 people who perished in a 2018 fire in the town of Paradise, California and was the highest death toll from a wildfire since 1918 when the Cloquet fire in Minnesota and Wisconsin killed 453 people, Al Jazeera reported.
Maui police chief John Pelletier said only a fraction of the disaster zone had been searched, and only two of the victims could be identified because they were burned badly. He added that cadaver dogs trained to detect bodies had covered only 3 percent of the search area.
“The remains we are finding are from a fire that melted metal,” he said. “We have to do rapid DNA [testing] to identify every one of these.
Governor Green added, “When we pick up the remains … they fall apart.”The cost to rebuild Lahaina was estimated at $5.5bn, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), with more than 2,200 structures damaged or destroyed and more than 2,100 acres (850 hectares) burned.“Our focus now is to reunite people when we can and get them housing and get them health care, and then turn to rebuilding."
The cost to rebuild Lahaina was estimated at $5.5bn, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), with more than 2,200 structures damaged or destroyed and more than 2,100 acres (850 hectares) burned, reported Al Jazeera.
