The toll of the fire on the island of Maui, in the Hawaiian archipelago, now reports 80 dead. Justice opened an investigation in order to establish a possible responsibility of the managers of the crisis, implicated by the inhabitants of Hawaii.
“The number of victims is 80,” Maui County said Saturday, adding that 1,418 people were housed in emergency reception centers. Survivors have begun to return to Lahaina, the former capital of the kingdom of Hawaii almost razed by the flames, haggard in front of their city reduced to ashes and full of questions.
“Where is the government?” Where are the ministers? another man called, visibly annoyed. The locals could only rely on the “coconut network” – word of mouth. Maui suffered numerous power outages during the crisis, and the 911 emergency number stopped working in parts of the island.
The existence of multiple simultaneous fires also divided the efforts of firefighters and, in Lahaina, dozens of residents taken aback had to throw themselves into the sea to escape the flames, according to the Coast Guard.
In this controversial context, the general counsel of the American State of the Pacific, Anne Lopez, opened an investigation into the management of the crisis: “My services are committed to understanding the decisions that were made before and during the fires and to share the results of this audit with the public,” she said in a statement.
Fire warning sirens were not activated, a spokesperson for the agency responsible for crisis management in Hawaii confirmed to CNN. He said alerts had been sent to residents’ cell phones and broadcast on radio and television.
Search and rescue teams from Honolulu, accompanied by dogs, arrived in Maui. County Police Chief John Pelletier said Thursday that up to 1,000 people could be missing. This does not mean that they are officially missing or dead, he stressed, however.
In Lahaina, a city of 12,000 people, countless homes, businesses and cars were consumed by flames. Survivors who have been able to return there since Friday are discovering the extent of the disaster in dribs and drabs. The death toll exceeds that of the 1960 tsunami, which killed 61 people on the island of Hawaii.
