Hawaii wildfires death toll continues to rise
Recovery crews combing through homes and vehicles burned to a cinder in Hawaii are likely to find 10 to 20 more victims per day, the governor has warned.
The death toll grew to 96 on Sunday, making this the deadliest US wildfire in more than a century.
Governor Josh Green told CBS News it could take up to 10 days to learn the full death toll.
Nearly the entire town of Lahaina was destroyed in the fire.
“There is nothing to see except full devastation,” Green told CBS, the BBC’s US news partner, on Sunday.
He added that all residents of Lahaina – home to 12,000 people – have likely escaped or perished in the fire. He said crews will likely discover more victims and that it will take time to identify them.
“It’s hard to recognise anybody,” Mr Green said.
As of Saturday, officials in Lahaina said only 3% of the town had been searched so far. They have been using the help of cadaver dogs to find additional victims.
“We’ve got an area that we have to contain that is at least five square miles, and it is full of our loved ones,” said Maui Police Chief Jeff Pelletier at a weekend news conference.
A total of 10 search dogs have been deployed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) search and rescue teams, the agency told CNN.
Several have also been sent from Southern California fire departments, officials told reporters.
FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, on Monday, declined to give an exact estimate of how long the search and recovery mission would take calling the situation “extremely hazardous”.
“The dogs can only work so long because of how hot the temperatures are,” said Ms Criswell, participating in the White House daily press briefing remotely from Hawaii. “There are also hot spots and so we have fire crews that are helping to pull down the area so the dogs can go in there.”
The dogs are very effective at finding human remains, experts say, but do need to rest and hydrate often between searches.
Only two victims of the known 96 have been officially identified so far thanks to DNA technology, Chief Pelletier said. (BBC)
