Governor says death toll in Lahaina is expected to rise after ‘worst natural disaster that Hawaii ever faced’
At least 89 people have died in the fire that consumed the historic town of Lahaina on the Hawaiian island of Maui, governor Josh Green has said, making it the deadliest US wildfire in more than a century and with the toll expected to rise.
“It’s an impossible day,” governor Josh Green told reporters on Saturday after viewing the devastation. Earlier, he said operations were now centered on “the loss of life”.
The fire was “certainly be the worst natural disaster that Hawaii ever faced,” he said. “We can only wait and support those who are living. 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 newly released figure surpassed the toll of the 2018 Camp Fire in northern California, which left 85 dead and destroyed the town of Paradise. A century earlier, the 1918 Cloquet Fire destroyed thousands of homes and killed hundreds of people in northern Minnesota.
In Lahaina, crews marked homes that remained standing with a bright orange X to signal they had searched for bodies and HR when they found human remains.
The fire reduced hundreds of homes to ash, sending emergency workers scrambling Saturday to find temporary housing for those lucky enough to survive. Communications were still difficult, with 30 cell towers still offline. Power outages were expected to last several weeks on the western side of the island.
Those who escaped mourned those who didn’t make it.
Retired fire captain Geoff Bogar and his friend of 35 years, Franklin Trejos, initially stayed behind to help others in Lahaina and save Bogar’s house. But as the flames moved closer and closer Tuesday afternoon, they knew they had to get out. Each escaped to his own car. When Bogar’s wouldn’t start, he broke through a window to get out, then crawled on the ground until a police patrol found him and brought him to a hospital.
Trejos wasn’t as lucky. When Bogar returned the next day, he found the bones of his 68-year-old friend in the back seat of his car, lying on top of the remains of the Bogars’ beloved 3-year-old golden retriever Sam, whom he had tried to protect.
