A hundredth victim of the fires that ravaged Maui last summer has been identified, police on this island located in the Hawaiian archipelago announced Friday.
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It is a 70-year-old woman, Lydia Coloma, according to a press release. As for the number of people who remain missing, it is now reduced to a handful of individuals.
Since the fire that almost razed the tourist town of Lahaina on Maui on August 8, the search for bodies and their identification has been very laborious.
In an attempt to identify the unrecognizable remains found among thousands of buildings reduced to piles of ashes, the authorities asked relatives of the missing to provide a DNA sample.
In September, the provisional death toll from the disaster was revised downwards to 97 deaths. But after other victims died from their injuries and more bodies were discovered in the following weeks, it rose back to 100.
The devastating fire almost razed Lahaina, former capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii, and has been the deadliest in the United States for more than a century.
The management of the authorities, which is the subject of an investigation, has been widely criticized, in particular because the warning sirens, planned in the event of a tsunami, volcanic eruption or fires, have never sounded.
Many Lahaina residents were caught by the fire at the last moment and dozens had to throw themselves into the sea to escape the flames.
Some hydrants used by firefighters also ran out of water or pressure.
Hawaii’s main electricity supplier, Hawaiian Electric, is also the target of multiple complaints accusing it of negligence because it did not cut off power despite a clear warning from the weather service.
Before the fire devoured Lahaina, the archipelago was on fire red alert because of violent winds fueled by Hurricane Dora, which was surging in the Pacific a few hundred kilometers offshore.
