Maui fire death toll rises to 67 as rescue efforts continue

Green said Thursday that the death count would probably rise as search crews work through the damage that he characterized as looking like a bomb scene. The blazes destroyed 1,000 or more structures, Green said. Accuweather Inc. put the preliminary estimate of damage from the fires at $8 billion to $10 billion.

Aerial surveys found more than 270 buildings burned in the seaside resort of Lahaina, once the capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Thousands of residents and tourists had fled an area left without electricity, phone service or the internet. After witnessing the damage first hand, the governor said it was likely the largest natural disaster in Hawaii history.

The fire was one of several that erupted this week on Maui, the second-largest of the Hawaiian islands.

Hawaii’s Attorney General office will conduct a “comprehensive review of critical decision-making and standing policies leading up to, during and after the wildfires,” the department said in a statement Friday.

President Joe Biden on Thursday declared a major disaster in Hawaii, freeing up federal funds to aid recovery.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is assisting with search and rescue efforts in Lahaina, Anne Bink, associate administrator of response and recovery, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television.

The blaze was spread by winds from a high-pressure zone to the north that swept downwards toward Hurricane Dora, a low-pressure zone off to the south.

While such complexities make it harder for scientists to define the role global warming may have had in exacerbating the disaster, climate change is extending the length of fire season and increasing areas burned in many parts of the world. A recent study found that between 2000 and 2019, the number of people in the US exposed to wildfire risk doubled.