After becoming the deadliest wildfire in the U.S. in over a century, the death toll from the wildfire disaster in Hawaii rose to 99 people, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said Monday.
Green provided the devasting update in an interview will CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Monday evening, just hours after confirming that the death toll was 96 as of Monday morning in a video shared on his Twitter account (now known as X).
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“The updated number is 99 confirmed people have passed,” he said, as he predicted that “the numbers will go up significantly in the coming days.”
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) shared its own update on Monday afternoon, advising that 300 FEMA employees and 140 search and rescue teams have been deployed “with more on the way.” Green added that it has become a mission of “searching for those that we have lost.”
“It’s a tragedy beyond tragedy,” he told Blitzer. “We, of course, never expected to see this anywhere in America, but we are burdened by the circumstance of climate change and tragedy at the same time. That’s why this wildfire occurred for the most part. We’re going to get to the bottom of it, though.”
Green added that he has personally authorized a comprehensive review of the situation in order to “have every answer going forward” and predicted that it will take another 8 to 10 days for the state to determine a final death toll.
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“I don’t really want to guess at a number because our people are working so hard right now,” the governor explained. “My heart personally goes out to those who have said they can’t get into the site. The reason for that is because we have to respect the dead. We have already seen if people go to ground zero too soon our responders, our FEMA folks, will not be able to do the job that they are there to do, which is to find out if we have lost any of our loved ones.”
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When asked about the state’s emergency siren warning system, he shared that it is believed that the sirens “became immobilized” due to the “extreme heat that came through.”
“We will get a lot of data. Data not just for the people of Hawaii but for the world because we’re concerned that the way things are now with global warming, with these kinds of fire hurricanes, that everyone could be vulnerable on some level whether they have dry conditions.”
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AP Photo/Rick Bowmer
Parasail owner Dave Vogt gave his first-hand account of the conditions, telling PEOPLE exclusively that “there was no opportunity to give a warning.”
“It was faster than anyone could have pushed a warning button, it was windy and then the fire started and it went fast,” he shared, expressing that “it was hot, just like a torch, and the wind was so strong and swirling and the glow kept getting bigger and bigger,” as he attempted to move his boats to a safe spot.
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Charter boat business owner Keao Shaw also had a similar experience, as he shared with PEOPLE that “there was black smoke everywhere” and that “you couldn’t see very far” while trying to escape.
“The fire was everywhere. It was up in the hills, it was down in the buildings, and [it was in] all the houses. It’s all the way down to the beach,” he said. “People were running for their lives.”
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Source: HIS Education