HONOLULU (AP) – Less than a day after Maui County released the names of 388 people missing following the incident. Worst wildfire in the US More than 100 of them or their relatives have come forward as safe for more than a century, the FBI said Friday.
The agency is reviewing the information provided and working to remove names from the list.
“We are extremely grateful to those who have contacted us by phone or email,” Stephen Merrill, the FBI special agent in charge of Honolulu, said at a news conference. He said, “By taking someone off the list, we can now devote more resources to those who are still on the list.”
Several people on the list told The Associated Press on the same day that they were alive and well, but several others said they were confused or irritated by being on the list. At least two other people are known to have died in the fire, but the official tally has not yet confirmed their deaths, and the number now stands at 115. .
Arturo Gonzalez Hernandez remained on the list despite being transferred. From Lahainaa historic seaside community destroyed by fire, three years ago, called the FBI on a Friday and gave them his name and date of birth. An inaccurate list can cause unnecessary stress, he said.
“Some people are still suffering from the effects of so many deaths,” said Gonzalez, who now lives on the coast near Kapalua.
Terry Thomas was killed when his car caught fire while fleeing an apartment with his two dogs and two friends, said his cousin Tammy Crews of Columbus, Georgia. The car got stuck in traffic and only one of his friends escaped. He later told Ms. Cruz that the last time he saw Thomas, he was crying hysterically and the car was getting hotter by the second.
Cruz said Friday that Thomas' niece provided a DNA swab to help identify the body, but the family had not received notification of her death.
“Dogs meant the world to her,” Cruz said. “I knew she wouldn't let her dog go.”
The 388 names represent part of a broader list of up to 1,100 people reported missing that the FBI said earlier this week it was working to identify. Maui County said the newly released list includes people whose first and last names are known, as well as verified contact information for people who have reported them missing.
Merrill said the list also includes children, but he could not reveal how many.
Officials asked anyone who knew anyone. list To contact authorities.
A missing person flyer for Joseph “Romsey” Lara is posted on the door of a shopping mall store in Lahaina, Hawaii, Monday, Aug. 21, 2023. Wildfires destroyed parts of Maui, Hawaii, earlier this month. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Something similar happened after the 2018 wildfires that killed 85 people and destroyed the town of Paradise, California. Authorities published a list of missing people in local newspapers. Decisions that helped identify large numbers of people Those who survived but were listed as missing. Within a month, the names went from 1,300 to only a dozen.
Lahaina resident Heidi Mazur, who is active on Facebook and started an online fundraiser after the fire, told The Associated Press she is frustrated by being on the missing person list.
“If I don't register my car or pay my taxes, they'll find me easily in New York, but here in Lahaina they can't seem to find me in a disaster,” she said via Facebook Messenger. Ta.
Malamakai Watson, 40, was not in Lahaina at the time of the fire, but was on the other side of the island. When she first appeared on her grassroots Facebook list of missing people, with her cellphone and internet service disrupted, she understood. However, after she was able to contact her loved ones, she was quickly placed on her finder list.
She was embarrassed to be on the new, more official list. She called the FBI to let them know she was safe, but nothing appeared online Friday.
“It's already a nuisance,” she said. “There are certainly people who are missing. We need to focus on those who still need to be found.”
Seth Alberico, a Bay Area soccer coach in California, said his and his daughter Kalia's names had previously been floating around on an unofficial crowdsourced list, but until he was informed by the Associated Press that they were on a new “verified” list. He said he didn't know he was even on the list.
“I’d love to get it off the list,” he said. “We're both safe.”
At the time of the Aug. 8 fire, he was staying in a Kaanapali Beach condo near the site of the fire. The former player knew he was on Maui and knew his daughter was there, but she reported him missing after she couldn't reach him on Facebook. His daughter was also not with him.
He said he sent messages on Facebook and Instagram asking to be taken off the list, but to no avail.
As of Thursday afternoon, an additional 1,732 people who had been reported missing had been safely located, officials said.
Crews searched for bodies among the wreckage of destroyed stores and high-rise residential buildings. Army Col. David Fielder, deputy commander of the joint task force responding to wildfires, said at a news conference Friday that many of the last remaining structures present complex challenges and the search will take weeks to complete. Ta.
Dozens of searchers also combed 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) of water for signs of people who may have died after climbing over a sea wall to escape the flames and black smoke that engulfed downtown. are doing.
Also Friday, officials announced an interim administrator for the county's Emergency Management Agency, a position that has been vacant since Herman Andaya resigned last week after receiving criticism for not sounding disaster sirens during the fire. was.
Darryl Oliveira, the Big Island's former fire chief and civil defense chief, is respected throughout the state for his expertise in disaster management, including hurricanes and lava flows.
He said he hopes to gain “trust and confidence” as he helps rebuild Maui's crisis management system.
Earlier this week, authorities appealed for the well-being of relatives of those still missing. Come forward and provide a DNA sample They promised that the samples would not be entered into law enforcement databases or used in any other way to help identify the remains. At the time, DNA had been collected from just 104 families, a number officials said was worryingly low.
Maui Prosecuting Attorney Andrew Martin, who heads the Family Assistance Center, said sample donations have increased slightly since then, but “we're still not where we want to be.”
Among the many reasons people are hesitant, Martin said, among them is “historical and generational distrust of government,” a sentiment rooted in the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1893.
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Johnson reported from Seattle. Boone from Boise, Idaho. and Dupuis from New York. Heather Hollingsworth of Mission, Kansas; Andrew Selsky of Salem, Oregon; and Mark Thiessen in Anchorage, Alaska, contributed.
