Wildfires leave at least 53 dead on Hawaii's Maui - CNN

YEREVAN, AUGUST 11, ARMENPRESS. The catastrophic wildfires that have been scorchingHawaii'sMaui for three days have killed at least 53 people, American officials said Thursday – a number they expect will keep rising as search teams begin venturing into neighborhoods and homes that were reduced to ashes, CNN reports.

CNN quoted local officials as saying that the devastation is so widespread – and so catastrophic – that it’s hard to estimate just how many buildings were burned to the ground or damaged, but they estimate hundreds of structures have been impacted.

The “older neighborhood” ofLahaina, an economic hub in western Maui that drew millions of tourists each year, is destroyed, Maui County Mayor Richard T. Bissen Jr. said in a Thursday afternoon news conference.

“It’s all gone,” he said.

And with power and cell service out in western Maui, officials don’t know how many people who may have tried to escape are still missing.

“What we saw was likely the largest natural disaster in Hawaii’s state history,” Gov. Josh Green said in the news conference after touring Lahaina on Thursday. Green estimated that over 1,700 buildings were destroyed in the fire in Lahaina.

The 53 deaths would make the wildfire that torched Lahaina’s historic districts the second deadliest blaze in the United States in a century. It would trail onlyCalifornia’s Camp Fire,which killed 85 people in 2018.

More than 14,000 people were transported off Maui on Wednesday, and officials expect an additional 14,500 to be moved off the island Thursday, the local Tourism Authority said.