{"id":232682,"date":"2023-08-13T10:03:13","date_gmt":"2023-08-13T02:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=232682"},"modified":"2023-08-13T10:03:13","modified_gmt":"2023-08-13T02:03:13","slug":"us-wildfires-hawaii-starts-probe-into-wildfire-handling-as-toll-hits-80","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=232682","title":{"rendered":"US wildfires: Hawaii starts probe into wildfire handling, as toll hits 80"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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LAHAINA (Hawaii, United States), Aug 13 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Hawaii’s chief legal officer\u00a0said she was opening a probe into the handling of devastating\u00a0wildfires that killed at least 80 people in the state this week, as criticism\u00a0grows of the official response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The announcement and increased death toll came as residents of Lahaina were\u00a0allowed back into the town for the first time — with most finding their\u00a0homes had been reduced to ashes, and even the lucky few angry at a sense of\u00a0
abandonment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hawaii’s Attorney General Anne Lopez said her office would be examining\u00a0“critical decision-making and standing policies leading up to, during and\u00a0after the wildfires on Maui and Hawai’i islands this week.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“My department is committed to understanding the decisions that were made\u00a0before and during the wildfires and to sharing with the public the results of\u00a0this review.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Late Friday, Maui county officials gave an updated death toll from the\u00a0disaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The number of fatalities is at 80,” the county said, adding that 1,418\u00a0people were at emergency evacuation shelters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For some of those who made it back into Lahaina, there was elation as they\u00a0tearfully reconnected with neighbors they feared might not have got out\u00a0alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You made it!” cried Chyna Cho, as she embraced Amber Langdon amid the ruins.\u00a0“I was trying to find you.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For some of the luckiest, there was joy — albeit tempered by the scale of\u00a0the tragedy that counts among the worst natural disasters to hit the state of\u00a0Hawaii.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I just couldn’t believe it,” Keith Todd said after finding his home\u00a0intact. “I’m so grateful, but at the same time it’s so devastating.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Todd, 64, discovered his house and his neighbor’s house untouched, and his\u00a0solar panels providing electricity to the fridge, which was still dispensing\u00a0ice on demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But even those few whose homes still appeared habitable were being warned\u00a0they might not be safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Some structures in the Lahaina water system were destroyed by the fire…\u00a0These conditions may have caused harmful contaminants, including benzene and\u00a0other volatile organic chemicals (VOCs), to enter the water system,” said\u00a0
Maui’s water department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“As a precaution…(we) are advising residents to not use the tap water for\u00a0drinking and cooking until further notice.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The number of people killed surpassed the count from when a tsunami struck\u00a0the Big Island in 1960.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Without a doubt, there will be more fatalities. We don’t know ultimately how\u00a0many will have occurred,” Governor Josh Green said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crews from Honolulu arrived on Maui along with search and rescue teams\u00a0equipped with K-9 cadaver dogs, Maui County said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Firefighters were continuing to extinguish flare-ups and contain wildfires in\u00a0Lahaina, with spot blazes evident in the town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maui County Police Chief John Pelletier said Thursday that as many as 1,000\u00a0people could be unaccounted for, though he stressed that this did not mean\u00a0they were missing or dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Communications in the western part of the island remain tricky, and Pelletier\u00a0said many of those whose whereabouts were not known could simply be out of\u00a0reach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fires follow other extreme weather events in North America this summer,\u00a0with record-breaking wildfires still burning across Canada and a major heat\u00a0wave baking the US southwest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Europe and parts of Asia have also endured soaring temperatures, with major\u00a0fires and floods wreaking havoc. — NNN-AGENCIES\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LAHAINA (Hawaii, United States), Aug 13 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Hawaii’s chief legal officer\u00a0said she was opening a probe into the handling of devastating\u00a0wildfires that killed at least 80 people in the state this week, as criticism\u00a0grows of the official response. The announcement and increased death toll came as residents of Lahaina were\u00a0allowed back into the town […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":232683,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232682"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=232682"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":232684,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232682\/revisions\/232684"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/232683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=232682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=232682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=232682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}