The painful balance of the forest fire that lasted for days on the island of Maui in the state of Hawaii was announced. Maui Mayor Richard Bissen shared the latest data on the fires from his social media account.
HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE CANNOT GET NEWS
Bissen reported that 114 deaths were confirmed and 27 bodies were identified. Stating that 850 people could not be heard from due to the fires, Bissen emphasized that families whose relatives disappeared in the fire should contact Maui and FBI officials to give DNA samples.
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden will visit the disaster area in Hawaii later on.
DETERMINING THE NUMBER OF DEAD WILL TAKE 10 DAYS
US President Joe Biden stated that the forest fires in Hawaii, which started on August 9, were the “deadliest wildfire in more than a century” in the USA, and said he would visit the state as soon as possible.
Hawaii Governor Josh Green stated that during the ongoing work of search and rescue teams in the region, “they can find around 10 to 20 corpses a day” and that it may take 10 days to determine the total number of dead.
ALLEGED NEGLIGENCE
On the other hand, it was claimed that the response to the fires may have been delayed due to “the small number of firefighters and lack of equipment”, while it was claimed that “negligence and necessary precautions were not taken” in the fires.
Herman Andaya, Chairman of Maui’s Emergency Management Authority, answered journalists’ questions at a press conference on the forest fires yesterday.
Claims that “negligence and necessary precautions were not taken” came to the fore in the fires due to reasons such as the disaster warning sirens not working and the flow of electricity poles not being interrupted.
When one of the allegations was “not using sirens”, Andaya said that the island’s siren system was designed for tsunamis rather than forest fires and that sirens were not part of the fire response protocol. Stating that if the sirens sounded, the people would try to go to higher places, Andaya noted that he “does not regret” for not sounding the sirens at the time of the incident. (AA-UAV)