Hawaii Lahaina fire death toll rises to 89

Hawaii Lahaina fire death toll rises to 89

89 people have been confirmed dead in the Maui fire that destroyed the historic town of Lahaina in the Hawaiian Islands, marking the deadliest fire in the United States.

Hawaii Governor Josh Green has warned that the death toll could rise "significantly" as forensic work continues to identify the victims.

He said the fire would certainly be the worst natural disaster to hit the Hawaiian Islands.

He added, "Now our focus is on reuniting people when we can and housing them and providing them with health care and then rebuilding."

The fires are now largely contained, and efforts to fully extinguish them continue in parts of the island, including around Lahaina, which has been devastated.

Authorities have focused on using dogs trained to identify corpses to sift through what's left of the island's coastline to search for signs of bodies under the debris.

So far they have only covered 3% of the search area, Maui Police Chief John Pelletier said.

Jeremy Greenberg, a senior official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), said additional support included urban search and rescue and firefighting teams.

Also "the absolute number one priority is the safety of the survivors," he said.

More than 2,000 buildings are thought to have been damaged or destroyed by the fires. The majority of these were homes in the Lahaina area.

The cost of rebuilding Maui is estimated at $5.5 billion (£4.3bn), according to the Pacific Disaster Center (PDC) and FEMA, which is coordinating relief efforts from Washington to Hawaii.

Helicopter pilot Richard Olsten flew over Maui and reported that even many boats in the harbor had caught fire and sunk.

"The historical buildings, the church, the missionary building, etc. are all gone," he said.

And the main tourist area with all the shops and restaurants, the historic Front Street - all burned to the ground, he says.

Felicia Johnson, who owns a printing business in Kuhului, Maui, is organizing a massive grassroots response to the disaster.