SW News: Officials have issued a warning that the death toll from a wildfire that tore through a historic town on the Hawaiian island of Maui in the United States may increase as they search for the charred remains of people. The death toll currently stands at 93.

Following the wildfire that has destroyed thousands of structures and forced thousands of residents to evacuate for their lives, a large portion of the historically significant town of Lahaina resembled an arid wasteland.
Maui Police Chief John Pelletier said only 3% of the search area has been covered by cadaver dogs and employees sifting through the burned-out debris. The Lahaina wildfire is the worst in the United States in more than a century. On Saturday, Hawaii Governor Josh Green visited the devastation and told reporters that 86% of the 2,200 damaged or destroyed buildings in West Maui were residences.

Green said that the projected $6 billion in damage to the island would take an incredible amount of time to repair. Officials said that finding the dead is a new task for the search teams as they dig through the rubble. Green stated that 544 structures, 96% of which were residential, were impacted by the Upcountry fire.
County officials said on Facebook early on Saturday that emergency managers in Maui were assisting in the housing search for as many as 4,500 displaced persons, using data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Pacific Disaster Centre.

Meanwhile, during the Sunday Angelus, Pope Francis expressed his sympathies for those affected by the wildfires that have ravaged the island of Maui in Hawaii. In a telegram, the Pope had written to the Apostolic Nuncio in the United States, expressing his solidarity with all those suffering from this tragedy, especially those whose loved ones have died or are missing.