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The death toll in the Maui wildfires rose to 89, officials said Saturday, with Hawaii Gov. Josh Green cautioning that it was likely to continue to grow.
The revised number of fatalities has put the fire, which devastated the town of Lahaina, as the deadliest wildfire in modern U.S. history, surpassing the 2018 Camp Fire in California that killed 85.
As people wait and hope for news about their loved ones and homes, the community has stepped up efforts to distribute supplies to those who lost everything.
In Maui, dozens of volunteers gathered near Maalaea Harbor to collect water, gas and other supplies, some calling out a chant, rallying together those gathered to help, as they loaded vehicles.
“Maui has Maui right now, and now Oahu is here supporting Maui,” community member Anthony Jensen told NBC News. “We’re doing this as one big family, one big ohana, and that’s our mission right now is just to support the people who really need it.”
Thousands of gallons of water and ready-to-eat meals will be needed each day for displaced residents, in addition to shelter for 4,500 people, FEMA and the Pacific Disaster Center said.
The fire damaged or destroyed an estimated 2,207 structures in Lahaina, and the majority of buildings impacted were residential, according to damage assessments.
What to know about the wildfires
- The death toll rose to 89 Saturday, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green announced in an afternoon news conference.
- A total of 2,200 buildings and other structures have been damaged or destroyed as of Friday, while 2,170 acres have been burned.
- Six fires are burning in Maui and the Big Island, but officials said the Lahaina fire is now 85% contained. Many of the town's historic landmarks are lost.
- Green said the fires are likely to be the largest natural disaster in the state’s history.
- NBC News' Miguel Almaguer, Dana Griffin and Steve Patterson are reporting from Maui.
U.S. fire administrator: collective fires top modern 10 worst
The devastation resulting from a complex of fires on Maui that started Tuesday represents the deadliest U.S. fire in recent years, U.S. Fire Administrator Lori Moore-Merrell said.
"This fire now has become the deadliest in the last 10 years," she announced at a Saturday news conference convened by Gov. Josh Green.
The Maui complex of fires also represent the deadliest U.S. fire in the last 100 years. California's Camp Fire in 2018, which killed 85, previously held that title.
Officials waned that the death troll would continue to climb as search and recovery teams planned to cover more ground in upcoming days.
Governor says winds may have made fires unstoppable
Gov. Josh Green said Saturday that strong winds in Hawaii midweek may have made the fires on Maui unstoppable.
As questions grow regarding state and local officials' initial responses to the nascent blazes Tuesday, the governor pointed to a culprit hard to tame in any circumstance: Trade winds boosted by a high pressure system.
"The largest force in play that night were 80 mph winds," Green said during a news conference on the fires and their aftermath. "Fortunately, now those winds have passed."
The National Weather Service published a summary of peak wind gusts in Hawaii for Monday through Wednesday. The strongest wind recorded in Maui during that span was a 67 mph gust on Wednesday. The most powerful wind on the Big Island was a gust of 82 mph recorded Tuesday.
Green suggested that the winds' sudden and insurmountable force would have whipped hungry flames through West Maui regardless of the human reaction.
"Having seen that storm," Green said, "we have doubts that much could have been done with a fast-moving fire like that."
No IDs yet for the dead, and police chief urges patience
Chief John Pelletier of the Maui Police Department on Saturday braced the public for more devastation in West Maui because the search, recovery, and identification process remains in its earliest stage.
He said during Saturday's news conference no identities for the deceased have been completed in a process that can include rapid DNA testing, dental record comparisons, and informing family members.
"Every one of these 89 are John and Jane Does," the chief said.
The death toll will increase, Pelletier said, and it's unclear where it will end up.
"None of us really knows the size of it yet," Pelletier said. "You want it fast, or you want it right? We’re going to do it right."
He said only 3% of an area of Maui that is under search and recovery plans has been covered. "We're going as fast as we can," Pelletier said.
The chief noted that the heat and humidity of Maui were most likely slowing down search and rescue dogs deployed for the mission. "We can only go as fast as the animal can go," he said.
Pelletier cited island cultural principles and said search, recovery and identification would be done in the spirit of aloha and respect.
Hawaii death toll passes Paradise Camp Fire toll
With 89 confirmed deaths in the Maui wildfires, which were swept by extreme winds into the town of Lahaina, the disaster officially becomes deadlier than California’s Camp Fire in 2018, which killed 85.
That notorious California fire was also swept by high winds into the small mountain communities of Concow, Paradise and Magalia in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Paradise and Concow were almost destroyed.
Until Saturday the fire had been the deadliest in American history in the last 100 years, officials have said.
The Camp Fire ignited on Nov. 8, 2018, and had “extreme rates of spread” due to dry conditions and high winds, state fire investigators have said.
It began in Pulga, and a second point of ignition was vegetation that went into power lines, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said in 2019. It was ignited by a fault electric transmission line and winds drove it into the communities, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection has said. Pacific Gas & Electric later pleaded guilty to 84 manslaughter counts.
Even with a record of 89 fatalities, public told to expect more
In announcing the death toll in Maui's devastating fires has risen from 80 to 89 in the span of a day, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said on Saturday that the number would continue to rise.
"There are 89 fatalities that have been measured," he said at a news conference. "It’s going to continue to rise. We want to brace people for that."
Search and recovery crews were continuing to comb through fire-scorched communities, including historic Lahaina town in West Maui, where the worst of the fires struck swiftly after the blazes began Tuesday.
Death toll rises to 89 in Maui fires
The death toll in fires that have ravaged Maui since Tuesday increased to 89, Gov. Josh Green of Hawaii said Saturday.
Speaking at an evening news conference, Green said, "It’s going to continue to rise. We want to brace people for that."
The previous death toll of 80 confirmed deaths was announced early Saturday with the caveat that search and recovery operations were likely to turn up more remains in fire-scorched communities in West Maui.