Seeking Answers in Aftermath of Historic Lahaina Fire
It's been two weeks since fire leveled the historic town of Lahaina on the island of Maui, the deadliest wildfire in modern U.S. history. And there's still a lot of confusion over exactly how many people are still unaccounted for.
Transcript
00:00 search teams in Lahaina on Maui say that they have completed searching single-story structures.
00:07 Now they move on to multi-story structures, which is going to be more difficult.
00:11 But still, there are a lot of questions about how many people remain unaccounted for.
00:16 It's been two weeks since fire leveled the historic town of Lahaina on the island of Maui,
00:21 the deadliest wildfire in modern U.S. history.
00:24 And there's still a lot of confusion over exactly how many people are still unaccounted for.
00:29 I know a lot of people that are missing still.
00:31 Maui authorities held a press conference to try to walk people through the process of identifying missing people,
00:36 but the number keeps changing.
00:38 As of today, it's between 1,000 and 1,100.
00:43 Because of the nature of the fire, many remains are just partial.
00:47 They need DNA to be identified, but only 104 families have given DNA samples.
00:52 The number of family members who are coming in to provide DNA samples is a lot lower than they've seen in other disasters.
01:00 Authorities emphasized multiple times that no DNA samples will be stored in any kind of law enforcement database.
01:06 They also said they wouldn't ask anyone about their immigration status.
01:10 The only purpose for which it will be used is helping identify the unaccounted for.
01:18 Another big question mark, how many kids are on the list?
01:22 We know a lot of kids are missing. We don't know how much are found dead, how much are found alive, how much are still missing.
01:28 When pressed by Scripps News if there are children on the unaccounted for list,
01:31 an FBI representative said they don't know because they don't have complete information.
01:36 I'm not saying we don't have child victims.
01:38 In our holdings of all these complaints, those who didn't provide a date of birth
01:44 don't enable us to know whether that person was a minor or an adult or anything.
01:49 Fire experts say it's also possible some remains can't be identified because the intense heat cremated bodies.
01:55 Realistically, let's be honest here, we're going to have a number of confirmed, we're going to have a number of presumed.
02:03 Another part of the problem, no centralized database of missing people.
02:06 Some reports are missing birth dates or last names. The FBI is trying to sort it out.
02:11 We're cross-referencing all the lists so that we can determine who in fact truly is still unaccounted for.
02:17 There is this list online, spearheaded by locals from the beginning.
02:21 We realized that people had no way to get out and tell people they're still alive.
02:25 The spreadsheet lists 698 people still missing, and every day that goes by,
02:30 their loved ones lose more hope of being reunited with anyone on the list.
02:34 And we just figure if they're still missing by now, what is it, like two weeks later,
02:39 they're probably going to stay missing. Whether or not we're going to find parts of them or whatnot
02:44 so we can put them to rest is another story.
02:47 Some families have taken to posting flyers on posts and storefronts listing details of their lost loved ones.
02:52 Some featuring groups of people. The plea, have you seen them? Police ask for patience.
02:59 We are going to do this right. We're not going to do it fast. We cannot be in a rush to judgment.
03:06 Maurita Giorgio, Scripps News, Maui.