Maui wildfires: Death toll reaches 80 as rescuers continue search ops

livemint.com:

At least 80 people have been killed amid deadly wildfires in the Hawaiian island of Maui this week. Hundreds of homes were reduced homes to ash with emergency workers scrambling to find temporary housing for survivors on Saturday. Cadaver-sniffing dogs were deployed with the search parties and officials warn that the death toll is likely to rise.

The blaze was the country's deadliest since the 2018 Camp Fire in California killed at least 85 people and destroyed the town of Paradise. The fire, a local resident told AP, went from zero to 100 and essentially managed to "eat an entire town in four hours". Meanwhile the police said on Saturday that a new fire burning on the Hawaii island of Maui has triggered the evacuation of a community to the northeast of the previously affected area.

Communications remained difficult on Saturday morning with 30 cell towers still offline. Power outages are expected to last several weeks on the western side of the island. Hawaii Governor Josh Green said operations on Saturday would focus on “the loss of life" as he toured the devastation in Lahaina with representatives from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

According to reports hundreds of other people remain unaccounted for. “Most of our focus will be on humans today," he added. Emergency managers in Maui were still assessing the scope of the damage Saturday in the center of Lahaina and searching for places to house people displaced from their homes.

Officials estimate that more than 80 per cent of the 2,719 structures exposed to the fire were damaged or destroyed. An updated damage assessment released overnight by Maui County put in stark relief the Lahaina Fire's destructive power. (With inputs from agencies)