The death toll in the fires that have ravaged Maui since Tuesday rose to 89, making it the deadliest fire in US history, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said Saturday.
Speaking at an evening news conference, Green said: “It’s going to continue to rise. We want people to prepare for it.”
The previous tally of 80 confirmed dead was announced early Saturday with a warning that search and recovery operations were likely to turn up more remains in west Maui communities ravaged by fire.
Search and recovery teams were still touring communities ravaged by the fire, including the historic West Maui town of Lahaina, where the worst of the fires quickly subsided after the flames broke out Tuesday.
With 89 confirmed deaths in the Maui wildfires, which were blown by extreme winds toward the city of Lahaina, the disaster officially becomes deadlier than the 2018 California Camp Fire, which killed 85 people.
That notorious California fire was also blown by high winds toward the small mountain communities of Concow, Paradise, and Magalia in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Paradise and Concow were almost destroyed.
As of Saturday, the fire had been the deadliest in US history in the past 100 years, according to authorities.
The Camp Fire ignited on November 8, 2018, and had “extreme rates of spread” due to dry conditions and high winds, state fire investigators have said.
It started in Pulga, and a second ignition point was vegetation that ended up on power lines, said the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection in 2019. It was ignited by a faulty power transmission line and carried into communities by winds, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection has said. Later, Pacific Gas & Electric became pleaded guiltye of 84 counts of manslaughter.
