US: Death Toll from Hawaii Wildfires Increases to 53, Search for Survivors Continues

By Staff, Agencies

The ferocious wildfires that ravaged the Hawaiian island of Maui have killed at least 53 people, officials said Thursday, warning that the death toll will likely continue to rise.

The catastrophic fires, which turned neighborhoods into barren wastelands and destroyed more than a thousand structures, are likely the state’s largest ever natural disaster, the governor said. Deaths are expected to surpass that of a 1960 tsunami that killed 61 people.

“We don’t know how many people we have dead,” John Pelletier, the Maui police chief, said at press conference Thursday evening. “When this is all said and done, we just don’t know.”

The disaster began on Tuesday night when three blazes broke out on Maui, cutting off the western side of the island. The flames moved so rapidly, some survivors escaped by jumping into the ocean and had to be rescued by the coast guard. At least 30 people were injured, suffering burns and smoke inhalation, and thousands have been displaced.

Crews have continued mass evacuation efforts and desperate searches for survivors as displaced residents try to come to terms with what appears to be widespread destruction, particularly in the historic community of Lahaina, which was almost completely destroyed.

Hawaii’s governor, Josh Green, described the fires as “likely the largest natural disaster” in state history. “What we’ve seen has been catastrophic,” he said.

“The full extent of the destruction of Lahaina will shock you. It does appear that a bomb went off,” he said. Recovery will take years and billions of dollars, but the town will rebuild, he said.

The US president, Joe Biden, on Thursday approved a disaster declaration for Maui, which will allow federal aid be used to help local recovery efforts for areas affected by the wildfires. He pledged that the federal response will ensure “anyone who’s lost a loved one, or who’s home has been damaged or destroyed, is going to get help immediately”.