Maui inferno death toll rises to 89, making it deadliest wildfire in modern US history, as lawyers claim Hawaii Electric may have stoked blaze by failing to shut off power to Lahaina

Hawaii Governor Josh Green announced Saturday evening that the Maui blazes have become the deadliest wildfires in modern US history as the death toll rose to 89.  

The disaster surpassed California’s 2018 Camp Fire, which killed 85, however Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen warned the death toll still ‘could go up’ as investigators and rescue teams continue combing through the ruins. 

Speaking at a daily evening press conference to update the mounting death toll, Green said fires are already ‘the largest natural disaster Hawaii has ever experienced’, which will ‘take an incredible amount of time to recover from.’ 

Multiple law firms have now announced plans to explore legal action against Hawaiian Electric, claiming the state’s largest power supplier may be at fault for the unprecedented wildfires. 

At least one class action lawsuit is reportedly being considered, which could see the company blamed for the disaster that has so far killed at least 89 people and razed over 2,200 buildings to the ground.

‘From what we’ve learned, we believe the Lahaina fires could have been prevented had proper safety precautions been taken,’ said Gerald Singleton, a lawyer involved with the potential legal action, to the New York Times. 

The company has come under fire for allegedly failing to cut power as the wildfires erupted on Tuesday, and a state regulatory filing in April reportedly saw the company name wildfire prevention as its lowest priority. 

The announced litigation comes as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said on Saturday it could cost upwards of $5.52 billion dollars to rebuild the wildfire-ravaged town of Lahaina. 

Experts warned that the recovery could cost more than expected due to the high number of homes on Maui being constructed primarily of wood, making them ‘very vulnerable’ to wildfires that were previously not considered a threat on the islands. 

Reconstruction may involve material which is more durable and less flammable – such as brick – but that will likely increase costs and construction time.  

In the days since the blaze, shocking images have revealed the 12,000 person town of Lahaina – once a popular tourist hotspot – now resembling an apocalyptic wasteland.

As Lahaina residents come to terms with losing approximately 80 percent of their town, former FEMA official Roy Wright stressed that the daunting cost to rebuild it could increase further. 

‘Every estimate we hear during the first week is someone’s best approximation, and it’s wrong,’ he told the New York Times. ‘We just don’t know enough yet.’ 

Part of the reason so much of the town has been devastated is due to the high number of its buildings being made of wood, according to wildfire expert Thomas Jeffery. ‘Many of the residential properties in Lahaina appear to have wood siding, and a number of them have elevated porches with a lattice underneath,’ he said. 

But for locals who have lost their entire homes and livelihoods in the wildfires, Wright said it is expected that insurance claims will soon flood the island – and he felt people should feel confident they will receive a payout.

While Hawaii is far from averse from a natural disaster, if it does it would typically be struck by tropical crises like tornadoes and hurricanes. Wright said the record wildfires could shake up Hawaii’s insurance policies for good.

‘Hurricane is still your primary risk. Wildfire is going to be a secondary peril. It is, but clearly, it’s not a peril we can ignore,’ he said. 

Because Hawaii’s other islands are also littered with flammable, wooden properties, Wright concluded neighboring residents should consider taking steps to protect against potential fires.

‘This risk is real,’ he added. 

When the blazes began on Tuesday, drought-like conditions caused by a summer of high temperatures and little rain – combined with winds from Hurricane Dora – saw the flames spread rapidly.

With many residents and tourists caught off-guard, some resorted to flinging themselves into the ocean in a bid to escape the blistering streets.

On Friday, days after the fires blistered his town of Lahaina, local resident Kekoa Lansford said he worried the cleanup would take ‘years to fix’.

‘This is not even the worst of it,’ he told the BBC as he pointed to the leveled town. ‘(We) still get dead bodies in the water floating, and on the seawall.’

His fears about the monumental task of rebuilding the town were echoed by Hawaii Governor Josh Green – who declined to give his own estimate at a press conference Friday but warned it would cost well into the ‘billions of dollars.’ 

‘When you see the full extent of the destruction of Lahaina, it will shock you,’ he said. ‘All of those buildings virtually are going to have to be rebuilt. It will be a new Lahaina that Maui builds, in its own image, with its own values.’ 

Officials have been scrambling to find solutions to the crisis, which has seen tens of thousands evacuated while authorities shuttle resources from mainland America.

To aid the rescue and recovery efforts, the Hawaii Department of Transportation said Saturday it would close one of the runways at Maui’s main airport to make way for cargo flights ‘assisting in airlifting goods/ necessities.’ 

Officials said the closure would not affect commercial flights, and desperate families have been pictured crowding airports in hopes of catching a plane out. 

Huge evacuation efforts have also taken place in recent days, with around 15,000 people a day being rescued from the island of Maui in recent days. 

Many of those attempting to find safety ended up in shelters, with BBC journalist Max Matza reporting from one of the facilities on Friday that he spoke to residents who encountered bodies floating in the water.

‘I found two bodies floating against my sea wall,’ said one local, who said he was avoiding listening to Governor Green’s updates because he didn’t want to be reminded of the disaster.

The mounting death toll has continued to rise through the week as Governor Green announced Thursday that the rising figure led the wildfires to become one of the deadliest disasters to strike the islands of Hawaii since it became a US state in 1959.

‘In 1960 we had 61 fatalities when a large wave came through Big Island,’ Green said, referring to a tragedy that struck a year after Hawaii became the 50th US state.

‘This time, it’s very likely that our death totals will significantly exceed that,’ he added. At the time, the death toll was 53, and it rose above 61 the following day. 

The governor added the devastated town now looks ‘as though a bomb hit’ it, saying: ‘It looks like total devastation; buildings that we’ve all enjoyed and celebrated together for decades, for generations, are completely destroyed.’