Maui wildfires deadliest in century as death toll hits 93

Sirens stationed around the island - intended to warn of impending natural disasters - never sounded, and widespread power and cellular outages hampered other forms of alerts.

Members of a search-and-rescue team walk along a street, Saturday in Lahaina, Hawaii, following heavy damage caused by wildfire. (AP photo)

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The death toll from the Maui wildfires in Hawaii reached 93 on Saturday, according to the Maui County website, making it the deadliest US wildfire in more than a century, with the total likely to rise as cadaver dogs sift through the ruins of Lahaina.

The scale of the damage came into sharper focus four days after a fast-moving blaze levelled the historic resort town, obliterating buildings and melting cars.

The cost to rebuild Lahaina was estimated at $5.5 billion, 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.

Hawaii Governor Josh Green warned at a press conference on Saturday afternoon the death toll would continue to increase as more victims were discovered. Dogs trained to detect bodies have covered only 3% of the search area, Maui County Police Chief John Pelletier said.

Officials vowed to examine the state’s emergency notification systems after some residents questioned whether more could have been done to warn them before the fire overtook their homes. Some were forced to wade into the Pacific Ocean to escape.

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Sirens stationed around the island – intended to warn of impending natural disasters – never sounded, and widespread power and cellular outages hampered other forms of alerts.

Governor of Hawaii Josh Green, left, and Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen, Jr., speak during a tour of wildfire damage on Saturday, Aug. 12, 2023, in Lahaina, Hawaii. (AP Photo)

The state’s attorney general, Anne Lopez, said she was launching a review of the decision-making before and during the fire, while Green told CNN he had authorised a review of the emergency response.

Officials have described a nightmarish confluence of factors – including communications network failures, wind gusts of up to 80 miles per hour (130 kph) from an offshore hurricane and a separate wildfire dozen of miles away – that made it nearly impossible to coordinate in real-time with the emergency management agency that would typically issue warnings and evacuation orders.

“Over time, we’ll be able to figure out if we could have better-protected people,” said Green. He said the multiple fires and dangerous winds created extraordinarily difficult conditions.

The death toll made the inferno, which erupted on Tuesday, Hawaii’s worst natural disaster, surpassing a tsunami that killed 61 people in 1960, a year after Hawaii became a US state.

The latest figure exceeded the 85 people who perished in a 2018 fire in the town of Paradise, California and was the highest toll from a wildfire since 1918 when the Cloquet fire in Minnesota and Wisconsin claimed 453 lives.

Officials have secured 1,000 hotel rooms for people who lost their homes and are arranging for rental properties to serve as housing at no cost to families, Green said. More than 1,400 people had been taken in at emergency shelters.

Deanne Criswell, the FEMA director, said the agency had 150 people on the ground and that additional search teams and dogs would be arriving within a day or two.

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Authorities began allowing residents back into west Maui on Friday, although the fire zone in Lahaina remained barricaded. Officials warned there could be toxic fumes from smouldering areas and said search operations were continuing.

Hundreds of people were still missing, though a precise count was not clear.

At a family assistance centre in Kahului, June Lacuesta said he was trying to locate nine relatives who had not been heard from since Tuesday.

“When I see Lahaina town itself, I cannot describe the feelings I get,” said Lacuesta, who was headed to a church shelter next to continue his search.

The disaster began just after midnight on Tuesday when a brush fire was reported in the town of Kula, roughly 35 miles (55 km) from Lahaina.

About five hours later, power was knocked out in Lahaina. In updates posted on Facebook that morning, Maui County said a three-acre (1.2-hectare) brush fire cropped up in Lahaina around 6:30 a.m. but had been contained by 10 a.m.

Subsequent updates were focused on the Kula fire, which had burned hundreds of acres and forced some local evacuations. But at around 3:30 p.m., according to the county’s updates, the Lahaina fire flared up.

Hawaii stevedores and other volunteers prepare donations for the victims of the Maui wildfires at Pier 1, where they will ship them to Maui next week, in Honolulu, Hawaii, August 12, 2023. (Reuters)

Some residents began evacuating while people including hotel guests on the town’s west side were instructed to shelter in place. In the ensuing hours, the county posted a series of evacuation orders on Facebook. However, it was not clear whether residents were receiving them as people frantically fled the fast-advancing flames.