Oct. 21—The death toll for the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century has increased by one, to 99, after Maui County police found additional remains last week.
The death toll for the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century has increased by one, to 99, after Maui County police found additional remains last week.
The remains were recovered Oct. 12 in the Old Lahaina Courthouse, according to county officials. However, they said at the time that they did not know whether the remains were from someone who had previously been identified as a fire fatality.
An autopsy and forensic examination verified that they were not from a previously recovered person, officials said Friday.
So far, police have identified the remains of 97 people from the Aug. 8 fire that wiped out much of Lahaina, a historic town on Maui's west coast. The remains of two people have yet to be identified.
The estimated death toll stood at 115 for nearly a month until Sept. 15 when Maui County officials dropped it down to 97, saying that forensic analysis helped clarify the number of dead, eliminating duplications and, in some cases, animal remains.
Since then the toll rose to 98 early this month after the family of Laurie Allen, 65, confirmed she had died at Straub Medical Center in Honolulu from her injuries sustained in the fire.
The wildfire started in a grassy area in Lahaina's hills. Powerful winds related to a hurricane passing to Hawaii's south carried embers from house to house and hampered firefighting efforts. About 2, 200 buildings were destroyed and many more were heavily damaged, and about 8, 000 people were forced to move to hotels and other temporary shelter.
Maui County officials Friday also released the updated MPD-FBI "credible list of unaccounted for /missing individuals " from the wildfire with the names of six people, down one from a week ago.
The first FBI-MPD unaccounted-for list on Aug. 24 had 388 names. Since then, Maui Police Chief John Pelletier has said only those people who have a formal missing-person report filed with MPD will be included on the list.
Today's missing list was the ninth released since Aug. 24. Maui police says anyone with information that can help in finding unaccounted people should contact the FBI at 808-566-4300 or at.
Friday's FBI-MPD list of six missing people including a reference ID number includes :—Artur Babkov, 27911—Lydia Coloma, 27924—Paul Kaspryzycki, 27896—Robert H. Owens, 27899—Lee Rogo, 28837—Elmer Lee Stevens, 27897
