The FBI said 100 people on its list of those who are missing following the wildfires in Maui have confirmed they are safe – after several expressed confusion about why they’d been included at all.
Officials published the names of 388 people who ‘remain unaccounted for’ on Thursday, two weeks after the blaze that’s killed at least 115. The list has now been shortened after many came forward.
But there was fresh concern on Saturday as police said the published names were just a ‘subset’ and that hundreds more people still missing whose names have not been released. Further details on the true number of people potentially still missing have yet to emerge.
A review of the published names revealed several had been traced by relatives soon after the fire, or posted online to confirm they are safe. In one heartbreaking case, a 14-year-old boy whose name appears has already been confirmed dead by his family.
While the confirmation that many are alive offers a glimmer of hope, there was confusion and frustration among some who were listed. Some said officials could have learned from basic checks that they were accounted for.
MalamaKai Watson, 40, was baffled to be on the new, official list. She called the FBI to say she was safe, but didn’t see any changes online Friday. ‘The focus needs to be on the people needing to be found still,’ she said
The name of 14-year-old Keyiro Fuentes was also on the FBI’s list. Tragically, the boy was confirmed dead by his family last week.
An aerial view of Lahaina shows the sheer scale of destruction that the wildfires have caused in Hawaii
Officials have repeatedly warned that the current death toll of 115 could increase significantly as more remains are recovered and identified.
Despite the FBI’s confirmation that 100 had come forward, lists online appeared not to have been updated.
MalamaKai Watson, 40, was baffled to be on the new, official list. She called the FBI to say she was safe, but didn’t see any changes online Friday.
She was not in Lahaina during the fires but on the other side of the island. With cellphone and internet service disrupted, she understood when she first appeared on a grassroots Facebook list of the missing. But she was quickly listed as found after she was able to get in touch with her loved ones.
‘Now it’s annoying,’ she said. ‘There are people on there who are definitely missing. The focus needs to be on the people needing to be found still.’
The name of 14-year-old Keyiro Fuentes was also on the FBI’s list. Tragically, the boy was confirmed dead by his family last week.
Keyiro’s family held a memorial for him on Sunday, to mark what would have been his 15th birthday.
His mother, Luz Vargas, previously recounted in heartbreaking detail how she had found her son’s remains while searching the burned ground where their home in Lahaina used to be. Keyiro did not immediately appear on the official list of those who died because his remains had not been processed by authorities.
‘We’re very thankful for the people who have reached out by phone or email,’ Steven Merrill, the FBI’s special agent in charge in Honolulu, said in a news conference.
The FBI compiled the list of 388 names, which is significantly fewer than the previous estimate of 1,100 missing. The number was reduced after duplicates were omitted
‘As we get someone off of a list, this has enabled us to devote more resources to those who are still on the list.’
Heidi Mazur, of Lahaina, said she was frustrated to be on the unaccounted-for list when she has been active on Facebook and started an online fundraiser after the fire.
‘They will find me in a New York minute if I don’t pay my car registration or taxes, but they can’t seem to locate me in a disaster here in Lahaina,’ she said.
Another woman listed as missing, Christine Delora Collins, was confirmed to be safe earlier this week after a Facebook appeal. Christine’s sister, Pamela, had urged anyone who had seen her sister to get in touch.
Pamela told DailyMail.com on Friday afternoon that Christine was safe in Kihei, another area of Maui.
Arturo Gonzalez Hernandez wound up on the list even though he moved away from Lahaina, the historic seaside community demolished in the blaze, three years ago, and he called the FBI on Friday to provide his name and birthdate.
An inaccurate list could cause unnecessary stress, he said.
‘Some people are still struggling with the impact of so many people dying,’ said Gonzalez, who now lives up the coast near Kapalua.
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‘Her dogs were her world to her,’ Cruz said. ‘I knew she wouldn’t have left her dogs.’
Several other people on the list also appear to have been found, according to posts online.
Some are also marked as ‘found’ on an unofficial list of thousands of people who had been reported as missing in the wake of the fire.
The list was drawn up by Ellie Erickson, who helps run a Facebook page for relatives searching for their loved ones.
Authorities were initially reluctant to publish the names because it meant some families would have learned about their perished loved ones through the public disclosure. Pictured: Crosses honoring victims of the wildfire are posted along the Lahaina Bypass in Lahaina, Hawaii
Tony Takafua (left), seven, the youngest known victim of the disaster, who died along with his mother, Salote Takafua (right), and two other relatives
Erickson said on Thursday night that her team has contacted the FBI to ‘cross check and work to get some more of these names cleared off’.
The FBI’s list of 388 names is significantly shorter than expected after earlier estimates said 1,100 people were still missing. The number was reduced after duplicates were omitted, officials said.
On Friday, Merrill said there is a ‘larger’, unpublished list. ‘We care about every single person on that list and we will not rest until we know how each of those people are doing on that list,’ he said.
The number of confirmed dead after fires that destroyed the historic seaside community of Lahaina stands at 115, a number the county said is expected to rise.
Many on the list of those still missing have shared surnames, a grim indicator that whole families or groups of relatives remain unaccounted for and may have perished.
The list was published along with the identities of several more victims whose remains have been recovered since the fires on Tuesday, August 8. They include Tony Takafua, seven, the youngest known victim of the disaster, who died along with his mother and two other relatives.
Authorities were initially reluctant to publish the names because it meant some families would have learned about the deaths of their loved ones through the public disclosure.
Police Chief John Pelletier said: ‘We also know that once those names come out, it can and will cause pain for folks whose loved ones are listed.
‘This is not an easy thing to do, but we want to make sure that we are doing everything we can to make this investigation as complete and thorough as possible.’
The search for bodies across Lahaina has been extended to the ocean, where dive teams were scouring the waters for remains this week
A general view shows the aftermath of a devastating wildfire in Lahaina, Hawaii, Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2023
The search for bodies across Lahaina has been extended to the ocean, where dive teams were scouring the waters for remains this week.
Many people fled into the water as fires swept through the historic town – destroying more than 2,000 buildings – and it is feared that some many have drowned.
Names on the missing list were deemed validated if officials had a person’s first and last name and a verified contact for the person who reported them missing, officials said.
An additional 1,732 people who had been reported missing have been found safe as of Thursday afternoon, officials said.
On Wednesday, officials had said 1,000 to 1,100 names remained on the FBI’s tentative, unconfirmed list of people unaccounted for, but DNA had been collected from only 104 families, a figure far lower than in previous major disasters around the country.
Pelletier said Tuesday that his team faced difficulties in compiling a solid list. In some cases, people provided only partial names, and in other cases names might be duplicated.
The developments come after Maui County sued Hawaiian Electric Co. on Thursday, saying the utility negligently failed to shut off power despite exceptionally high winds and dry conditions.
Witness accounts and video indicated that sparks from power lines ignited fires as utility poles snapped in the winds, which were driven by a passing hurricane.
Hawaii Electric said in a statement it is ‘very disappointed that Maui County chose this litigious path while the investigation is still unfolding’.
