The number of confirmed fatalities from the Maui wildfires is at least 97 people, a lower death toll than what officials had previously announced, the Hawaii governor, Josh Green, said in an interview on CNN on Friday.
State leaders said last month that at least 115 people had died in the 8 August blaze but on Friday said new testing showed they were counting multiple DNA samples from some of the victims. John Pelltier, the Maui police chief, said in a press conference that the number of missing people had also dropped from 41 to 31. And so far, 74 of the deceased have been positively identified.
John Byrd, laboratory director with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, said the 97 confirmed deaths should still be considered a minimum and that it was possible the figure could rise again.
Determining the death toll from the wildfires in Lahaina has been especially complicated because of the damage caused by the fire and the chaos as people tried to escape, officials said. In some cases, animal remains were inadvertently collected along with human remains.
The Lahaina fire is the deadliest in the US in more than a century. Caught in a hellscape, some residents died in their cars, while others jumped into the ocean or tried to run for safety. The blaze reduced much of the historic town to ash.
Byrd said the initial death tally was too high for several reasons, adding that the lower 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 realize 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 realize that.”
“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,” Byrd said.
Only people who have had a missing person report filed for them with the Maui police department are on the verified missing list, Pelletier said. If a missing person report hasn’t been filed for someone more than five weeks after the fire, then that person probably isn’t actually missing, the chief said.
Dr Jeremy Stuelpnagel, Maui county physician’s coroner, wasn’t supposed to start the job until October. But he sped up his start date and arrived on Maui from New York City soon after the fire. Until he arrived, Maui’s medical examiner duties were shared with other counties.
“When this happened it was time to drop everything and come here,” he said.
He described how some remains arrived commingled.
“When the fire broke out, people ran together, they huddled together,” Stuelpnagel said. “They’re holding each other in those moments. Some of them were even holding pets.”
Stuelpnagel said people working on the identification process are trying to “reunify people to have them as whole as they’re able to be”, before the remains are returned to their loved ones.
The work to reunite fire victims with families involves more than just DNA tests, officials said. Anthropologists are assisting, and officials are gathering clues from dental work and medical devices like pacemakers when possible.
Authorities expressed relief at having a better grasp on the number of dead and those still unaccounted for in the blaze.
“For the very first time … we legitimately have a chance to identify every single person we lost and to reunite them with their family,” Pelletier said. “And so in the midst of all this tragedy, there’s a little ray of hope right there and so that really is incredible.”
The region faces a long recovery ahead, including an arduous process of hazardous waste removal by the US Environmental Protection Agency. Residents struggling to find longterm housing have called on the federal government to provide aid more quickly.
