Hawaii Gov. Josh Green (D) announced Tuesday that children were among the victims of the deadly wildfires in Maui last week, and he pledged an official memorial to those lost.
At least 99 people have died in the blaze that completely destroyed the tourist town of Lahaina, with many more missing.
Green said that investigators have found entire families killed in the flames, both in homes in Lahaina and in vehicles attempting to escape.
“That’s one of the toughest parts of this,” he said in a local news interview early Tuesday. “It’s one of the reasons … we are asking for some patience when going into the ground zero area because some of the sites are too much to share or see from just a human perspective, and also you don’t want to disrupt any of the recovery.”
Recovery is speeding up as more and more resources, including federal disaster assistance, flow onto Maui, Green said. Access to Lahaina has been severely restricted in order to keep the site secure for those rifling through debris to find victims.
“There were so many other people, bystanders that wanted to get in — tourists and people were ducking down into the crisis zone — that it was actually blocking our ability to do the work,” Green said.
About 25 percent of the town was searched as of Monday afternoon, he said. He hopes that about 85 percent of the search can be complete by this weekend. Around 20 search dogs and “dozens” of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) personnel are in Lahaina assisting local rescue officials, he said.
“As soon as we get out of phase zero, which is clearing all of the grid knowing we got, if at all possible, all the people identified or all the tragic loss of life reconciled, then we open the road without any hesitation whatsoever,” Green said.
In a statement from his office Tuesday, Green said that the state of Hawaii will develop a memorial for victims of the Lahaina fire. It’s unknown what any memorial or preserved land would look like, but that decision will be left to Lahaina residents, he said.
“We’ll also invest state resources to preserve and protect this land for our people; not for any development, for our people locally,” Green said in a statement.
His office will also attempt to stop land sales in the affected area in order to prevent speculators from grabbing up real estate. Green said the state attorney general is working to draft legislation to halt sales and protect land for locals.
The wildfire was fast-moving and fueled by abnormally strong winds. The fire trapped hundreds in Lahaina, forcing some into the ocean to escape flames. Nearly every building in the town was destroyed, and the number of deaths is expected to rise further as searches continue.
The Pacific Disaster Center and FEMA estimated that the wildfire caused up to $5.5 billion in damage.