"KAHULUI, Hawaii - The death toll from the Maui wildfires reached 96 on Sunday as relatives of the missing frantically searched for signs their loved ones may still be alive, while survivors grappled with the scale of the disaster and sought solace at church services.

Days after the inferno destroyed much of the historic resort town of Lahaina on Tuesday and Wednesday, crews of firefighters were still battling flare-ups, and cadaver dogs were sifting through the town's charred ruins in search of victims.

The death toll made the blaze Hawaii's worst natural disaster, surpassing a tsunami that killed 61 people in 1960, a year after Hawaii became a U.S. state.

It was also the largest number of deaths from a U.S. wildfire since 1918, when 453 people died in the Cloquet fire in Minnesota and Wisconsin, according to data from the National Fire Protection Association."

Jorge Garcia and Mike Blake report for Reuters August 14, 2023. [2]

SEE ALSO:

"What Caused Hawaii's Devastating Wildfires?" (DW) [3]

"Drought In The Tropics: Hawaii Wildfires Highlight Worsening Trends" (E&E News) [4]

"How Climate Change Turned Lush Hawaii Into a Tinderbox" (New York Times) [5]

"Wildfires In A Warming World" (Context/TRF) [6]

"What Caused The Hawaii Wildfires?" (BBC News) [7]

"Wildfires Are Exploding in Unexpected Places Due to Climate Change. Is Hawaii the Latest Example?" (Inside Climate News) [8]

"What Caused the Deadly Hawai‘i Wildfires?" (Yale Climate Connections) [9]