Hawaii wildfires: At least 106 killed – and children among victims yet to be identified, says governor

Published

2 years ago

August 16, 2023

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The blaze that burned through the historic town of Lahaina on Maui last week has killed at least 106 people, Hawaii’s governor has said.

The announcement came as officials working to identify those who have lost their lives named two of the victims – Robert Dyckman, 74, and Buddy Jantoc, 79.

A further three victims have been identified and their names will be released once authorities have informed their next of kin, a Maui County statement added.

“We offer our deepest condolences to the families who are beginning to receive notifications about their loved ones,” said Mayor Richard Bissen. “As a community, we offer our prayers of comfort in this most difficult time.”

The wildfires, some of which have not yet been fully contained, are already the deadliest in the US in more than a century. Their cause is being investigated.

A mobile morgue unit has been brought in, and Governor Josh Green warned more bodies could be found.

Asked if children are among the missing, Mr Green told Hawaii News Now: “Tragically, yes… when the bodies are smaller, we know it’s a child.”

“The scale of destruction is incredible,” he said, adding the recovery will take time.

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President Joe Biden, who has faced criticism over his response to the fires, said on Tuesday he and first lady Jill Biden would visit Hawaii “as soon as we can”, but he does not want his presence to interrupt recovery and clean-up efforts.

During a stop in Milwaukee to highlight his economic agenda, Mr Biden pledged “every asset they need will be there for them”.

The blaze that swept into centuries-old Lahaina last week destroyed nearly every building in the town of 13,000.

Survivors have been forced to seek shelter in hotel rooms set aside for displaced residents.

Even where the flames have retreated, authorities have warned that toxic by-products may remain, including in drinking water, after the flames spewed poisonous fumes. Many have been unable to return home as a result.

Donations of food, ice, water and other essentials have poured in.

Mary Kerstulovich, a Maui estate agent who has sought supplies and housing for evacuees, said there was finally a sense government relief was arriving a full week after the disaster, but a more effective plan is needed.

“There is still a lot of chaos. People need supplies still,” she said.

The fire destroyed or damaged more than 2,200 buildings, 86% of them residential, and caused an estimated $5.5bn (£4.3bn) in damage, officials said.

World

Israel’s PM tries to get on front foot in propaganda war he knows he is losing

Published

4 hours ago

August 11, 2025

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Israel's PM tries to get on front foot in propaganda war he knows he is losing

Israel’s prime minister added more detail to his deeply controversial plans for military escalation in Gaza at a news conference with foreign media yesterday – despite the condemnation of the UN Security Council, which met in an emergency session and urged him to rethink.

Benjamin Netanyahu spoke of a “fairly short timetable” to establish designated “safe zones” for the one million or so set to be displaced from Gaza City.

He also vowed to seize and dismantle Hamas’s final strongholds there – in the central refugee camps, and in al Mawasi, along Gaza’s southwestern coast.

This, per Netanyahu, is the only way to destroy the terror group, which he claimed “subjugates Gazans, steals their food and shoots them when they try to move to safety”.

Al Mawasi is already home to a significant displaced population, most of whom live in tents cramped up against the Mediterranean Sea, in what is already a designated humanitarian zone.

If members of Hamas live among them, rooting them out will be hugely complicated and will involve significant civilian casualties. If the residents of Gaza City can’t evacuate south to al Mawasi, where will they go?

Netanyahu’s plan is to set up more aid distribution sites through the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and to flood Gaza with food.

He claimed his policy was not one of forced starvation – describing particular photos of starving babies as “fake news”, and accusing the media of painting a false picture.

“The only ones who are being deliberately starved in Gaza are our hostages,” the prime minister claimed.

I asked Netanyahu how he would go about preventing the kinds of daily killings taking place at aid distribution points in the months since GHF has been operating.

Doctors Without Borders has described these incidents as deliberately orchestrated.

The prime minister said increasing the amount of aid heading into the Strip was the answer.

“And by the way, a lot of the firing was done by Hamas seeking to have a response by our forces,” he added. “And very often they didn’t, they held back. They stayed their own fire even though their own lives were on the line.”

This was Israel’s prime minister trying to get on the front foot in a propaganda war he acknowledged he was losing. He was loath to admit the presence of famine in Gaza.

It took two questions before he acknowledged there was “deprivation”, even if he would not be drawn on whether his 11-week total blockade of the strip earlier this year had played any role.

He recognises that the appalled response of the international community to the human cost of this war, and the accusations of war crimes and genocide which Israel so vehemently rejects, are a terrible look.

This was his attempt to reclaim the narrative.

World

Defiant Netanyahu sets out plan for military escalation in Gaza – and describes photographs of starving babies as ‘fake news’

Published

10 hours ago

August 10, 2025