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Maui Fire Death Toll Drops to 97 After Weeks of DNA Review [1]

['Corina Knoll', 'More About Corina Knoll']

Date: 2023-09-15

The authorities announced on Friday that they currently believe 97 people died in the Maui wildfire instead of the 115 fatalities they had been reporting for weeks, a surprising development after initial fears that many more lives had been lost in the disaster.

Dr. Jeremy Stuelpnagel, the medical examiner for Maui County, said in a news conference that the process of confirming dead victims and identifying them through DNA analysis had been difficult and changing ever since the fire on Aug. 8 that destroyed most of Lahaina.

It is the first time that the Maui death toll has dropped. In some instances, Dr. Stuelpnagel explained, forensic examiners have determined that they had multiple sets of remains for the same person. He also said that 16 of the remains that investigators had received were nonhuman.

“It’s good news to have a lower number, that’s for darn sure,” Dr. Stuelpnagel said on Friday.

For more than three weeks, officials said that at least 115 people died, a number that held firm even as hundreds were said to be missing and investigators kept combing through the ruins of central Lahaina.

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[1] Url: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/15/us/maui-fire-death-toll-drops.html

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