16 September 2023 , 15:43
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The death toll from the devastating wildfires that tore through the beautiful Hawaiian island of Maui has been updated, as dozens are still feared missing.
The number of confirmed fatalities has dropped down to at least 97, officials in the US state have said, after thousands of residents had to flee from their homes on the island last month when, due to the natural disaster, entire neighbourhoods in Lahaina in Maui County were wiped out. The unprecedented scale of the fire also posed challenges for identifying victims. Initially, officials said they believed at least 115 people had died in the fire, but further testing showed they had multiple DNA samples from some of the victims, so that number has now been brought down to 97.
Maui Police Chief John Pelletier said the number of those who are missing also fell from 41 to 31. During a press conference yesterday afternoon, John Byrd, laboratory director with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, said the current number of dead should be considered a minimum because it is possible that the toll could rise.
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The aftermath of a devastating wildfire in Lahaina, Hawaii (AP)Determining the exact death toll from the August 8 wildfire has been especially difficult due to the damage caused by the blaze and the chaos as people tried to escape, officials said. In some cases, animal remains were inadvertently collected along with human remains.
Mr Pelletier said that so far, 74 of the deceased have been positively identified. The Lahaina fire is the deadliest in the US in more than a century. Tragically, some residents died in their cars while others jumped into the ocean or tried to run for safety.
"When the fire broke out, people ran together, they huddled together," said Dr. Jeremy Stuelpnagel, Maui County physician's coroner. "They're holding each other in those moments. Some of them were even holding pets." Because of this, some remains arrived commingled.
Fire and smoke filling the sky from wildfires in Lahaina (AP)The initial death toll was too high for several reasons, said Mr Byrd, adding that the ower tally now was the "normal and natural" progression of the long-term forensics investigation. "We look at body bags that come in and we do an initial inventory and we assess how many people are represented there," he said.
"When you do the first tally of all those that have come in, the number tends to be too high because as you begin to do more analysis and examination you realise that actually you've got two bags that were the same person or you have two bags that were the same two people but you didn't realise that." He added: "The numbers start a little too high on the morgue side and eventually settles until at some point it's going to be a final accurate number. I would say we're not quite there yet."
Officials believe at least 115 people died in the fire (AP)Only people who have had a missing person report filed for them with the Maui Police Department are on the verified missing list, Mr Pelletier said. If a missing person report has not been filed for someone more than five weeks after the fire, then that person probably is not actually missing, the chief said.
Now that the number of fatalities has dropped down, authorities hope this will help them understand the identity of anyone still unaccounted for. Mr Pelletier said: "For the very first time … we legitimately have a chance to identify every single person we lost and to reunite them with their family. And so in the midst of all this tragedy, there's a little ray of hope right there and so that really is incredible."