The Hawaii Police Department on Monday said they matched DNA taken from Dana Ireland’s body to that of 57-year-old Albert Lauro Jr. of Hawaiian Paradise Park on the Big Island. Police Chief Ben Moszkowicz said Lauro died by suicide and was found at home.

Authorities zeroed in on Lauro in recent months and got a DNA sample from him off of a discarded fork after they watched him eat lunch. He killed himself last week after police went to his home to test the sample against a swab taken from him in person.

Attempts by the AP to reach Lauro’s relatives were unsuccessful.

The DNA work represented a major development in a case that made headlines last year when Albert “Ian” Schweitzer, who had been incarcerated for more than 20 years for the killing, was released based on new evidence. Ireland’s body was found on Christmas Eve in 1991 on Hawaii’s Big Island.

Schweitzer was one of three men who spent time behind bars over her killing, but he always maintained his innocence. A judge is expected to rule Tuesday on a motion to officially exonerate him.

Police said the DNA evidence gave them probable cause to bring rape charges against Lauro but the statute of limitations on such charges expired years ago. Murder is still within the statute of limitations for Ireland’s death but police said they didn’t have enough evidence to charge Lauro with murder.

“The presence of Lauro’s DNA at the crime scene was, in and of itself, not sufficient evidence to prove that Lauro intentionally or knowingly caused her death,” Moskowicz said at a news conference livestreamed from Hilo.

Police hope Lauro’s cellphone will provide some answers and that family and friends who knew him in 1991 and now will help police determine what happened, Moskowicz said.

Schweitzer’s attorneys took the police to task, alleging that they intentionally botched the investigation into Lauro by not taking steps to ensure that he didn’t flee or kill himself after they obtained his DNA. They suggested that because of the man’s death, the truth about what happened to Ireland will never come to light. They also demanded a federal investigation, as well as all communications related to the DNA work.

“We knew that he had a family. He had a good life,” Innocence Project co-founder Barry Scheck, who is assisting the Hawaii Innocence Project in Schweitzer’s case, said of Lauro. “It’s well known in law enforcement circles … if you have DNA on a guy and you know he committed the crime, that if you do not bring him into custody, there is a serious chance that the person will flee, destroy evidence or kill themself.”

Moskowicz said if police arrested Lauro without probable cause, a court wouldn’t have accepted evidence they gathered afterward.
He denied police sabotaged the case.

“That is abjectly false, 100% not true,” he said, adding the police would follow the evidence wherever it goes.

Mayor Mitch Roth, who was the Big Island’s top prosecutor when Schweitzer’s attorneys and prosecutors entered into a “conviction integrity agreement” to reinvestigate the case, said Monday that he stands behind the police and noted that the results from the swab they collected didn’t come in until after Lauro died.

Lauro hadn’t been on law enforcement’s radar when Roth was prosecutor: “I don’t recall ever seeing this person in any of the police reports when I went over the case.”
Moskowicz said Lauro was arrested once in 1987 for shoplifting when he was about 20 years old.

The push to find out who killed Ireland gained renewed traction after the January 2023 release of Schweitzer, who was convicted in 2000 and sentenced to 130 years in prison. Innocence Project lawyers who took up his case argued that he didn’t match the DNA on a T-shirt found near Ireland. The shirt didn’t belong to Ireland but was soaked with her blood and contained DNA from an unknown man.

Even though Schweitzer was released, his legal team and prosecutors have continued to quibble over whether he’s actually innocent and deserves compensation for his years behind bars.

Schweitzer’s Innocence Project attorneys tracked down a DNA match with help from Steven Kramer, a retired FBI attorney and federal prosecutor who led the genetic genealogy team that solved the Golden State Killer case in 2018. Kramer found a match, based on genetics, ancestry, age, and address history, among other factors.

Lauro, according to Innocence Project court filings filed Sunday, lived less than 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) from where Ireland’s body was found along a fishing trail in a remote part of the Big Island. He would have been in his mid-20s at the time and owned or had access to a pickup truck that would have left the tire marks found at the scene, the filings said.

Innocence Project attorneys looked up his Facebook page and saw that he was still an avid fisherman and would have been familiar with the trail where Ireland was found.

On Monday, the attorneys called for a federal investigation into why police didn’t arrest Lauro, saying they had probable cause to do so. In their filing, they ask for police and prosecutors turn over all communications about the decision not to seek an arrest warrant after the DNA from Lauro’s fork was tested. They also want to know why he wasn’t arrested before or after police took the DNA swab.

A 2023 petition filed in the quest to release Schweitzer, the last of the three Native Hawaiian men who remained imprisoned in the killing, outlined the case, which was one of Hawaii’s most notorious.

Ireland, who was 23 years old and visiting from Virginia, was found barely alive in the bushes along a fishing trail in Puna, a remote section of the island. She had been sexually assaulted and beaten, and later died at Hilo Medical Center. The mangled bicycle she had been riding was found several miles (kilometers) away and appeared to have been run into by a vehicle.

She grew up in Springfield, Virginia. The killing remained unsolved for years.

A man named Frank Pauline Jr., who claimed to have witnessed the attack, told police that Schweitzer and his brother, Shawn Schweitzer, attacked and killed Ireland. But he was interviewed at least seven times and gave inconsistent accounts each time, eventually incriminating himself, leading prosecutors to indict Pauline as well as the Schweitzers.

Pauline and Ian Schweitzer were convicted in 2000. Shawn Schweitzer took a deal to plead guilty to manslaughter and kidnapping — and receive credit for about a year served and five years of probation — after seeing juries convict Pauline and his brother in 2000. Pauline died in prison.

The Schweitzer brothers “are happy that this person was finally caught,” said Kenneth Lawson, co-director of the Hawaii Innocence Project. “They’re disappointed in the way it happened.”

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Associated Press journalist Audrey McAvoy contributed to this report.

LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — Nearly a year after wind-whipped flames raced through Kim Ball’s Hawaii community, the empty lot where his house once stood is a symbol of some of the progress being made toward rebuilding after the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than century destroyed thousands of homes and killed 102 people in Lahaina.

“Welcome to our neighborhood,” Ball said Wednesday as he greeted a van full of Hawaii reporters invited by Maui County officials to tour certain fire-ravaged sites.

The gravel covering lots on his street in Lahaina indicate which properties have been cleared of debris and toxic ash in the months since the Aug. 8, 2023, blaze. On the lots along Komo Mai Street, there are pockets of green poking up through still visible charred vegetation.

Speaking over the noise from heavy equipment working across the street, Ball described how he was able to get a building permit quickly, partly because his home was only about 5 years old and his contractor still had the plans.

Ball wants to rebuild the same house from those plans.

“We may change the color of the paint,” he said.

Nearby on Malanai Street, some walls were already up on Gene Milne’s property. His is the first to start construction because his previous home was not yet fully completed and had open permits.

When he evacuated, he was living in an accessory dwelling, known locally as an “ohana unit,” borrowing the Hawaiian word for family. The main home was about 70% done.

“I was in complete denial that the fire would ever get to my home,” he recalled. “Sure enough, when I came back a couple days later it was gone.”

It’s “extremely healing,” he said, to be on the site and see the walls go up for what will be the new ohana unit. Using insurance money to rebuild, he’s “looking forward to that day where I can have a cocktail on the lanai, enjoy Maui — home.”

The construction underway at Milne’s property is “a milestone for us,” said Maui Mayor Richard Bissen. “I think the rest of the community can use this as sort of a jumping off point, and say, ‘If they can do it, we can do it, too.’”

Even though it’s been nearly a year, rebuilding Lahaina will be long and complicated. It’s unclear when people displaced by the fire will be able to move back and whether they’ll be able to afford to do so. The county has approved 23 residential building permits so far and 70 are under review, officials said.

“We’re not focused on the speed — we’re focused on the safety,” Bissen said.

Other stops of the tour included debris removal at a former outlet mall that had been a popular shopping destination for both tourists and locals, and a beloved, giant 151-year-old banyan tree, now drastically greener with new growth thanks to the preservation efforts of arborists.

They cared for the sprawling tree with alfalfa and other nutrients — “mainly just water,” said Tim Griffith, Maui County’s arborist, who is helping care for the tree along Lahaina’s historic Front Street. “Trees are … going to heal themselves, especially when they’re stressed.”

The gesture is sometimes known outside the islands as the “hang loose” sign associated with surf culture, but it was a fixture of daily life in the islands long before it caught on in California, Brazil and beyond. People in Hawaii have a variety of shaka styles and use it to convey a range of warmhearted sentiments, from hi and bye to thanks and aloha, among other meanings.

When captains of the Lahainaluna High School football team, from the Maui community devastated by last summer’s deadly wildfire, were invited to the Super Bowl in Las Vegas last month, they flashed shakas for the cameras.

Now, a pair of bills in the state Legislature would make the shaka the state’s official gesture and recognize Hawaii as its birthplace.

Sen. Glenn Wakai, who introduced the Senate version, said he can’t imagine the measure meeting any opposition and expects it to “sail through.”

Here are some things to know about Hawaii’s shaka — including its purported origin with a seven-fingered fisherman.

On paper, the House bill notes that the “shaka generally consists of extending the thumb and smallest finger while holding the three middle fingers curled, and gesturing in salutation while presenting the front or back of the hand; the wrist may be rotated back and forth for emphasis.”

In practice, the shaka is far more nuanced.

Some say the only requirement is an extended pinky and thumb. Others say shaking the shaka is a no-no.

Those from beach or rural communities tend not to shake their shakas. But in the capital city of Honolulu, it’s common.

“It’s just a strong movement — one movement,” said Chase Lee, who grew up just outside Honolulu. He was taught never to shake the shaka. If you do, “you’re a tourist,” he said.

But Erin Issa, one of his colleagues at Central Pacific Bank, likes to wag hers.

“I’m a very animated person,” she said. “I feel awkward if I’m just standing still.”

She prefers to flash a shaka with the palm facing outwards, as a sign of respect: “It’s shaka-ing to you, not to me.”

“As long as you get your pinky finger and your thumb out, you can wave it or you can just do just a flat shaka,” Dennis Caballes, a Honolulu resident, said while fishing at a beach park.

The shaka carries friendliness and warmth — aloha spirit. Some hold it low when greeting a child, and some like to flash double shakas. It can convey greetings, gratitude or assent, or it can defuse tension. It was particularly useful in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when people were afraid to shake hands.

“It’s such a versatile gesture,” said state Rep. Sean Quinlan, who introduced the House bill at the behest of a documentary filmmaker exploring the sign’s backstory.

Big Island state Rep. Jeanné Kapela, one of the House bill’s co-sponsors, said residents are “so lucky to have a visual signal for sharing aloha with each other.”

Shakas can avert altercations when people are cut off in traffic, said Wakai, the state senator who introduced the Senate version.

“The angst toward that driver kind of just immediately gets reduced,” Wakai said.

The prevailing story of the shaka’s origin traces back to a Native Hawaiian fisherman named Hāmana Kalili, who lived on Oahu’s North Shore in the early 1900s. Mailani Makaʻīnaʻi, Kalili’s great-great-granddaughter, wants the bills amended to include his name — something lawmakers are considering.

Kalili lost three fingers in a sugar mill accident, she said.

After the mishap, Kalili worked as a guard on a train. Kids who jumped the train for a free ride would curl their middle fingers to mimic Kalili’s injured hand, giving other train-jumpers the all-clear, said Steve Sue, who researched shaka for his documentary.

Other residents adopted Kalili’s three-finger-less wave more broadly, according to family lore, and it spread, possibly fueled by the waves of tourists that began arriving after World War II.

“I love the compassion part of it, you know, where, ‘Oh, okay, he doesn’t have all three fingers. So, I’m going to say hi the way he’s saying hi,’” Makaʻīnai said. “It’s the idea that … I’m like you and you’re like me.”

There’s a bronze statue of Kalili, his right arm extended into a shaka, at the Polynesian Cultural Center in Laie.

There are various theories about how the term “shaka” became associated with the gesture. Some have suggested that the name came from Japan’s Shaka Buddha.

The sign has spread around the world since the surfing boom of the 1950s and ’60s. It’s popular in Brazil, where it’s been used by martial arts aficionados. Brazil soccer greats Ronaldinho and Neymar Jr. incorporated it into their goal celebrations.

The shaka is such an integral part of Hawaii life that it’s easy to miss, said Sen. Chris Lee, chair of the Committee on Transportation and Culture and the Arts.

Some Honolulu city buses are outfitted with a digital shaka light that bus drivers can turn on to thank motorists for letting them merge. Texters have co-opted the “call me” emoji to symbolize the shaka, and local station KHON-TV has ended each evening newscast since the 1970s with clips of people flashing shakas.

Longtime KHON anchor Howard Dashefsky said throwing a shaka is almost a reflex when people in the community recognize him and call his name.

“There’s a lot of other places where you only get a one-finger gesture,” he said.

Shakas also come out naturally when people from Hawaii are somewhere else in the world and want to display connection to their island roots.

Businesses often use the shaka to project community belonging.

Central Pacific Bank, for example, called their digital checking account Shaka Checking at the suggestion of electronic banking manager Florence Nakamura.

“It makes people feel good when they receive one,” she said.

LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — The first of thousands of residents who lost their homes in the wildfire that destroyed the Hawaii town of Lahaina returned to their devastated properties Monday, with some stopping for a moment of reflection and others searching for mementos among the ruins.

“They’re very appreciative to get in here, something they’ve all been waiting anxiously for,” Darryl Oliveira, interim administrator of the Maui Emergency Management Agency, told reporters gathered outside the burn zone. “People who haven’t been here since the fire are taken aback by the amount of and extent of the destruction.”

In the days following the Aug. 8 wildfire, some people were able to return to their properties to evaluate the damage. But since then, the burned area has been off-limits to all but authorized workers. Authorities opened one small part of it on Monday, allowing residents in for supervised visits from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. By midday, about two dozen vehicles carrying residents had entered the area.

The prospect of returning has stirred strong emotions in residents who fled in vehicles or on foot as wind-whipped flames raced across Lahaina, the historic capital of the former Hawaiian kingdom, and overcame people stuck in traffic trying to escape.

The wildfire killed at least 97 people and destroyed more than 2,000 buildings, most of them homes. Some survivors jumped over a sea wall and sheltered in the waves as hot black smoke blotted out the sun.

Officials urged returning residents not to sift through the ashes for fear of raising toxic dust. The first area to be cleared for reentry was a zone of about two dozen parcels in the northern part of Lahaina.

From a National Guard blockade near the burn zone, Jes Claydon has been able to see the ruins of the rental home where she lived for 13 years and raised three children. Little remains recognizable beyond the jars of sea glass that stood outside the front door.

Claydon hoped to collect those jars and any other mementos she might find.

“I want the freedom to just be there and absorb what happened,” Claydon said. “Whatever I might find, even if it’s just those jars of sea glass, I’m looking forward to taking it. … It’s a piece of home.”

Claydon’s home was a single-story cinderblock house painted a reddish-tan, similar to the red dirt in Lahaina. A few of the walls are still standing, and some green lawn remains, she said.

Claydon said Monday evening that she was able to take some sea glass. She said the jars, weakened by the heat, cracked at her touch. She said it was difficult to be the first residents to return “knowing that so many are waiting for this opportunity.”

Those returning were given water, shade, washing stations, portable toilets, medical and mental health care, and transportation assistance if needed. Nonprofit groups also offered personal protective equipment, including masks and coveralls. Officials say ash could contain asbestos, lead, arsenic or other toxins.

Most journalists were confined to an area where they could not see people visiting their properties. Oliveira said officials wanted to ensure residents had space and privacy to reflect or grieve.

A team of more than two dozen people from Samaritan’s Purse, a nondenominational Christian ministry, was on hand to help residents sort through what was left of their homes, said Todd Taylor, who works with the organization.

“It’s like losing a loved one. That’s exactly what these folks are going through,” Taylor said. “Those homeowners can talk to us about their house — ‘This is where my bedroom was, and I had a nightstand here with my wedding ring,’ or, ‘My grandfather’s urn was on the sink’ — those type of indicators that can help our volunteers sift through the ash and look for very specific items.”

HONOLULU (AP) — Nearly a month after the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century killed at least 115 people, authorities on Maui are working their way through a list of the missing that has grown almost as quickly as names have been removed.

Lawsuits are piling up in court over liability for the inferno, and businesses across the island are fretting about the loss of tourism.

Government officials from Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen to President Joe Biden have pledged support, and thousands of people have been put up in hotels and elsewhere as they await clearance to visit and inspect the properties where they once lived.

A look at things to know about how the recovery in Lahaina is taking shape following the Aug. 8 disaster:

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HOW MANY PEOPLE DIED?

The official confirmed count stands at 115, a figure that has not changed since Aug. 21. But many more names remain on a list of people who are considered unaccounted for, and it is unclear whether the toll of the deceased will rise — or whether it will ever be known how many perished.

Maui County Police Chief John Pelletier has repeatedly pleaded for patience as authorities try to verify who is missing, who has been accounted for and who has died.

Officials have also sometimes clouded the situation. Police on Aug. 24 released a “credible” list, compiled by the FBI, of 388 missing people for whom authorities had a first and last name and a contact number for whoever reported them missing.

Many of them, or their relatives, came forward to say they were safe, resulting in the removal of 245 names on Friday. Some others are known to have died in the fire, but their remains have not yet been identified.

Gov. Josh Green had said the number of missing would drop to double digits with Friday’s update, but when police released it, there were 263 newly added names, for a new total of 385.

Over the weekend Green posted a video on X, formerly known as Twitter, seeking to clarify, saying, “The official number has been 385 … but there are only 41 — 41 active investigations after people filed missing persons reports.”

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WHO’S RESPONSIBLE?

Formal investigations will aim to determine the cause of the fire and review how officials handled it. But about a dozen lawsuits have already been filed blaming Hawaii Electric Company, the for-profit, investor-owned utility that serves 95% of the state’s electric customers.

Among the lawsuits is one by Maui County accusing the utility of negligently failing to shut off power despite exceptionally high winds and dry conditions.

Hawaii Electric has said in a statement that it is “very disappointed that Maui County chose this litigious path while the investigation is still unfolding.”

Other lawsuits have come from residents who lost their homes. On Monday, the father of Rebecca Rans, a 57-year-old woman with rheumatoid arthritis who died while trying to escape the fire, sued Maui County, the state, Hawaiian Electric and the state’s largest landowner, Kamehameha Schools, a charitable trust formerly known as the Bishop Estate.

The lawsuit alleges that the county and the Bishop Estate failed to maintain their land by mowing or otherwise removing the dry, invasive grasses that have taken over former sugar and pineapple plantations in the region and which helped fuel the fires on Aug. 8.

“All the landowners knew how dangerous it was to have that huge volume of dry grass next to subdivisions, and could have saved hundreds of lives at a cost of less than $1,000 per acre to cut the brush down,” attorney James Bickerton said in a news release.

The Associated Press sent an email seeking comment to the county. The Department of the Attorney General said in a written statement that the state is reviewing the lawsuit, and Hawaiian Electric declined to comment in an email sent by spokesperson Darren Pai.

“Our hearts are with all affected by the Maui fires,” Kamehameha Schools said in a written statement. “We are committed to restoring our Native Hawaiian people and culture through education, which includes stewarding and uplifting the health and resiliency of our ’āina (lands) and Native communities. As many aspects of the fires are still under investigation, we have no further comment at this time.”

In another case, lawyers representing Lahaina residents and business owners claim that cable TV and phone companies overloaded and destabilized some utility poles, which snapped in high winds, helping cause the fire.

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HOW IS THE GOVERNMENT HELPING PEOPLE?

Much of the immediate disaster relief aid has been organized by community members, such as a supply distribution center operating out of a Hawaiian homestead community in Lahaina where most of the homes survived.

Hawaii U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz said during remarks Tuesday on the Senate floor that federal support must continue.

“It’s our responsibility here in Congress to provide relief — in any way that we can, for as long as people need it,” he said.

As of Monday night, 5,852 people were staying at 24 hotels serving as temporary shelters around Maui, according to the county.

At the hotels, they’re receiving American Red Cross services including meals, mental health support and financial assistance.

More than 1,000 Federal Emergency Management Agency personnel have been on Maui helping survivors, Schatz said.

FEMA will also need to complete “one of the most complex debris removal operations in its history,” he said, which may take as long as a year and cost up to a billion dollars.

Gov. Green said in a video on social media Monday that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has cleared more than 200 parcels.

“This is important because we can start getting people back to inspect their own land and get some closure soon,” he said.

FEMA has given up to $19.4 million of assistance, Green said.

Help is also coming from the rich and famous: Oprah Winfrey and Dwayne Johnson announced the creation of a $10 million fund to make direct payments to people on Maui who are unable to return to their homes.

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SHOULD TOURISTS VISIT MAUI?

Officials said last week that the visitor traffic to the island has dropped 70% since Aug. 9, the day after Lahaina burned. Maui relies heavily on tourism for jobs, and the economy is reeling.

Lahaina’s restaurants and historic sites, once popular tourist draws, are now charred ruins. Large resort hotels farther up the west coast of Maui were spared but are now housing displaced residents.

Authorities are encouraging travelers to visit the island and support the economy, but ask that they avoid west Maui and instead stay in other areas like Kihei and Wailea.

Celebrities including Native Hawaiian actor Jason Momoa and Aerosmith singer and Maui homeowner Steven Tyler are also among those urging people to visit.

“Everything’s beautiful, except we gotta come there and make it more beautiful, OK?” Tyler said during a weekend concert in Philadelphia.

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Johnson reported from Seattle.

HONOLULU (AP) — The number of people on the official list of those missing from the Maui wildfire stood at 385 on Friday, nearly unchanged from a week earlier.

In a news release, the Maui Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation said 245 people on the list of 388 made public the previous week were located and removed. However, a nearly equal number of new names were added.

The updated total was a startling departure from what had been expected — a day earlier Gov. Josh Green said he believed the number would fall below 100.

“We think the number has dropped down into the double digits, so thank God,” Green said in a video posted to his account on X, formerly known as Twitter.

After Maui police released the updated list, the governor said the numbers of fatalities and missing are often in flux in mass casualty events until investigations are completed.

“Exact numbers are going to take time, perhaps a long time, to become finalized,” Green said in a statement provided through a spokesperson.

He said there are less than 50 “active missing person cases.” He didn’t elaborate but indicated those are the people for whom more information was provided than the minimum to be on the missing list compiled by the FBI. It only requires a first and last name provided by a person with a verified contact number.

Authorities have said at least 115 people died in the blaze that swept through Lahaina, the deadliest wildfire in the U.S. in more than a century. So far, the names of 50 people have been publicly released and five others have been identified but their identities withheld because next of kin haven’t been reached. The rest have yet to be identified.

The flames turned the picturesque seaside town into rubble in a few short hours on Aug. 8. Wind gusts topping 60 mph (97 kph) ripped through the town, causing the flames to spread exceptionally quickly.

Lahaina has deep significance in Hawaiian history as the one-time capital of former Hawaiian kingdom and as the home to high-ranking chiefs for centuries. In recent decades, the town became popular with tourists, who ate at its oceanfront restaurants and marveled at a majestic 150-year-old banyan tree.

Half the town’s 12,000 residents are now living in hotels and short-term vacation rentals. The Environmental Protection Agency is leading an effort to clean hazardous waste left in a burn zone stretching across some 5 square miles (13 square kilometers).

Reconstruction is expected to take years and cost billions.

Initially more than 1,000 people were believed unaccounted for based on family, friends or acquaintances reporting them as missing. Officials narrowed that list down to 388 names who were credibly considered missing and released the names to the public last week.

New names on Friday’s updated list were added from the Red Cross, shelters and interested parties who contacted the FBI, Maui Police Chief John Pelletier said. He urged family members of the missing to submit their genetic data to help identify their relatives.

“If you have a loved one that you know is missing and you are a family member, it’s imperative that you get a DNA sample,” Pelletier said in a video posted to Instagram.

The cause of the fire hasn’t been determined, but it’s possible powerlines from downed utility poles ignited the blaze. Maui County has sued Hawaiian Electric, the electrical utility for the island.

The utility acknowledged its power lines started a wildfire early on Aug. 8 but faulted county firefighters for declaring the blaze contained and leaving the scene, only to have a second wildfire break out nearby.

Hawaiian Electric Company released a statement Sunday night in response to Maui County’s lawsuit blaming the utility for failing to shut off power despite exceptionally high winds and dry conditions. Hawaiian Electric called that complaint “factually and legally irresponsible,” and said its power lines in West Maui had been de-energized for more than six hours when the second blaze started.

In its statement, the utility addressed the cause for the first time. It said the fire on the morning of Aug. 8 “appears to have been caused by power lines that fell in high winds.” The Associated Press reported Saturday that bare electrical wire that could spark on contact and leaning poles on Maui were the possible cause.

But Hawaiian Electric appeared to blame Maui County for most of the devastation — the fact that the fire appeared to reignite that afternoon and tore through downtown Lahaina, killing at least 115 people and destroying 2,000 structures.

Richard Fried, a Honolulu attorney working as co-counsel on Maui County’s lawsuit, said that if their power lines hadn’t caused the initial fire, “this all would be moot.”

“That’s the biggest problem,” Fried said Monday. “They can dance around this all they want. But there’s no explanation for that.”

Videos and images analyzed by AP confirmed that the wires that started the morning fire were among miles of line that the utility left naked to the weather and often-thick foliage, despite a recent push by utilities in other wildfire- and hurricane-prone areas to cover up their lines or bury them.

Compounding the problem is that many of the utility’s 60,000, mostly wooden power poles, which its own documents described as built to “an obsolete 1960s standard,” were leaning and near the end of their projected lifespan. They were nowhere close to meeting a 2002 national standard that key components of Hawaii’s electrical grid be able to withstand 105 mile per hour winds.

As Hurricane Dora passed roughly 500 miles (800 kilometers) south of Hawaii Aug. 8, Lahaina resident Shane Treu heard a utility pole snap next to Lahainaluna Road. He saw a downed power line ignite the grass and called 911 at 6:37 a.m. to report the fire. Small brush fires aren’t unusual for Lahaina, and a drought in the region had left plants, including invasive grasses, dangerously dry. The Maui County Fire Department declared the fire 100% contained by 9:55 a.m. Firefighters then left to attend to other calls.

Hawaiian Electric said its own crews then went to the scene that afternoon to make repairs and did not see fire, smoke or embers. The power to the area was off. Shortly before 3 p.m., those crews saw a small fire in a nearby field and called 911, the utility said.

Residents said the embers from the morning fire had reignited and the fire raced toward downtown Lahaina. Treu’s neighbor Robert Arconado recorded video of it spreading at 3:06 p.m., as large plumes of smoke rise near Lahainaluna Road and are carried downtown by the wind.

Hawaiian Electric is a for-profit, investor-owned, publicly traded utility that serves 95% of Hawaii’s electric customers. CEO Shelee Kimura said there are important lessons to be learned from this tragedy, and resolved to “figure out what we need to do to keep our communities safe as climate issues rapidly intensify here and around the globe.”

The utility faces a spate of new lawsuits that seek to hold it responsible. Wailuku attorney Paul Starita, lead counsel on three lawsuits by Singleton Schreiber, called it a “preventable tragedy of epic proportions.”

LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — Authorities in Hawaii pleaded Tuesday with relatives of those missing after the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century to come forward and give DNA samples, saying the low number provided so far threatens to hinder efforts to identify any remains discovered in the ashes.

Some 1,000 to 1,100 names remain on the FBI’s tentative, unconfirmed list of people unaccounted for after wildfires destroyed the historic seaside community of Lahaina on Maui. But the family assistance center so far has collected DNA from just 104 families, said Julie French, who is helping lead efforts to identify remains by DNA analysis.

Maui Prosecuting Attorney Andrew Martin, who is running the center, said that the number of family members coming in to provide DNA samples is “a lot lower” than in other major disasters around the country, though it wasn’t immediately clear why.

“That’s our concern, that’s why I’m here today, that’s why I’m asking for this help,” he said.

Martin and French sought to reassure people that any samples would be used only to help identify fire victims and would not be entered into any law enforcement databases or used for any other purpose. People will not be not asked about their immigration status or citizenship, they said.

“What we want to do — all we want to do — is help people locate and identify their unaccounted-for loved ones,” Martin said.

Two weeks after the flames tore through Lahaina, officials are facing huge challenges to determine how many people who remain unaccounted for perished and how many made it to safety but haven’t checked in.

Something similar happened after a wildfire in 2018 that killed 85 people and destroyed the town of Paradise, California. Authorities in Butte County, home to Paradise, ultimately published a list of the missing in the local newspaper, a decision that helped identify scores of people who had made it out alive but were listed as missing. Within a month, the list dropped from 1,300 names to only a dozen.

Hawaii officials have expressed concern that by releasing a list of the missing, they would also be identifying some people who have died. In an email Tuesday, the State Joint Information Center called it “a standard held by all law enforcement and first responders here in Hawaii, out of compassion and courtesy for the families, to withhold the names until the families can be contacted.”

As of Monday there were 115 confirmed dead, according to Maui police. All single-story, residential properties in the disaster area had been searched, and teams were transitioning to searching multi-story residential and commercial properties, Maui County officials said in an update late Monday.

Police Chief John Pelletier said Tuesday that his team faces difficulties in coming up with a solid list of the missing. In some cases people only provided partial names, and in other cases names might be duplicated. There was “no secrecy, no hiding things,” he added.

“We want to get a verified list. The 1,100 names right now, we know that there’s a margin of that that some of them have first names only and there’s no contact number back. So there was a, ‘John’s missing,’ and when we try to call back who said that, no one is answering,” he said. “And so we’re trying to scrub this to make it as accurate as we can.”

Pelletier urged people to provide DNA and file a police report with as much information as possible if they have relatives unaccounted for.

“If you feel you’ve got a family member that’s unaccounted for, give the DNA,” he said. “Do the report. Let’s figure this out. A name with no callback doesn’t help anybody.”

One whose name was on the list was Roseanna Samartano, a resident of Lahaina, who didn’t know anyone was looking for her until an FBI agent phoned her a few days ago.

“I was shocked. Why is the FBI calling me?” the 77-year-old retiree said. “But then he came out with it right away, and then I kind of calmed down.”

It turned out a friend had reported her missing because he’d been unable to get in touch despite calling, texting and emailing. Her neighborhood of Kahana — which didn’t burn — had no power, cellphone service or internet in the days after the fires.

Clifford Abihai came to Maui from California after getting nowhere finding answers about his grandmother, Louise Abihai, 98, by phone. He has been just as frustrated on the ground in Maui.

“I just want confirmation,” he said last week. “Not knowing what happened, not knowing if she escaped, not knowing if she’s not there. That’s the hard thing.”

As of Tuesday, he said, he still had learned nothing further. He did provide a DNA sample, he said.

Abihai’s grandmother lived at Hale Mahaolu Eono, a senior living facility where another member of his extended family, Virginia Dofa, lived. Authorities have identified Dofa as one who perished. Abihai described Dofa and Louise Abihai as best friends.

He said his grandmother was mobile and could walk a mile a day, but it was often hard to reach her because she’d frequently turn off her cellphone to save battery power.

Confirming whether those who are unaccounted for are deceased can be difficult. Fire experts say it’s possible some bodies were cremated by the intense heat, potentially leaving no bones left to identify through DNA tests. Three-quarters of the remains tested for DNA so far have yielded usable results, French said.

People who lived through other tragedies and never learned of their loved ones’ fate are also following the news and hurting for the victims and their families. Nearly 22 years later, for example, almost 1,100 victims of the 9/11 terror attacks, which killed nearly 3,000, have no identified remains.

Joseph Giaccone’s family initially was desperate for any physical trace of the 43-year-old finance executive, who worked in the World Trade Center’s North Tower, brother James Giaccone recalled. But over time, he started focusing instead on memories of the flourishing man his brother was.

If his remains were identified and given to the family now, “it would just reinforce the horror that his person endured that day, and it would open wounds that I don’t think I want to open,” Giaccone said Monday as he visited the 9/11 memorial in New York.

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Johnson reported from Seattle, and Kelleher reported from Honolulu. Associated Press writers Jennifer Peltz in New York, Janie Har in San Francisco and Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, contributed.

LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — The head of the Maui Emergency Management Agency resigned abruptly Thursday, a day after saying he had no regret about not using sirens to warn residents of wildfires that devastated the historic seaside community of Lahaina and killed at least 111 people.

That decision from the agency directed by Administrator Herman Andaya, coupled with water shortages that hampered firefighters and an escape route that became clogged with vehicles, has brought intense criticism from many residents. The lack of sirens has emerged as a potential misstep, and The Associated Press reported that it was part of a series of communication issues that added to the chaos.

Mayor Richard Bissen accepted Andaya’s resignation effective immediately, the County of Maui announced on Facebook. Andaya cited unspecified health reasons, with no further details provided.

“Given the gravity of the crisis we are facing, my team and I will be placing someone in this key position as quickly as possible,” Bissen said in the statement.

A day earlier, Andaya defended the decision not to sound sirens as the flames raged. Hawaii has what it touts as the largest system of outdoor alert sirens in the world.

“We were afraid that people would have gone mauka,” Andaya said, using a Hawaiian word that means inland or toward the mountain. “If that was the case, then they would have gone into the fire.”

The siren system was created after a 1946 tsunami that killed more than 150 on the Big Island, and its website says they may be used to alert for fires.

Andaya was to take part in a meeting of Maui’s fire and public safety commission on Thursday morning, but it was canceled. On Wednesday he vigorously defended his qualifications for the job, which he had held since 2017. He said he was not appointed but had been vetted, took a civil service exam and was interviewed by seasoned emergency managers.

Andaya said he had previously been deputy director of the Maui County Department of Housing and Human Concerns and had been chief of staff for former Maui County Mayor Alan Arakawa for 11 years. During that time, he said, he often reported to “emergency operations centers” and participated in numerous trainings.

“So to say that I’m not qualified I think is incorrect,” he said.

Arakawa said he was disappointed by the resignation “because now we’re out one person who is really qualified.” Arakawa said Andaya was scrutinized for the job by the county’s personnel service.

“He was trying to be strong and trying to do the job,” Arakawa said about the wildfire response. “He was very, very heartbroken about all the things that happened.”

Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez said earlier Thursday in a statement that an outside organization will conduct “an impartial, independent” review of the government’s response and officials intend “to facilitate any necessary corrective action and to advance future emergency preparedness.” The investigation will likely take months, she added.

Avery Dagupion, whose family’s home was destroyed, is among many residents who say they weren’t given earlier warning to get out.

He pointed to an announcement by Bissen on Aug. 8 saying the fire had been contained. That lulled people into a sense of safety and left him distrusting officials, Dagupion said.

At the Wednesday news conference, Gov. Josh Green and Bissen bristled when asked about such criticism.

“The people who were trying to put out these fires lived in those homes — 25 of our firefighters lost their homes,” Bissen said. “You think they were doing a halfway job?”

Displaced residents are steadily filling hotels that are prepared to house them and provide services until at least next spring.

Authorities hope to empty crowded, uncomfortable group shelters by early next week, said Brad Kieserman, vice president for disaster operations with the American Red Cross. Hotels are also available for eligible evacuees who have spent the last eight days sleeping in cars or camping in parking lots, he said.

“We will be able to keep folks in hotels for as long as it takes to find housing for them,” Kieserman said at a media briefing. “I am confident we’ll have plenty of rooms.”

Contracts with the hotels will last for at least seven months but could easily be extended, he said. Service providers at the properties will offer meals, counseling, financial assistance and other disaster aid.

Green has said at least 1,000 hotel rooms will be set aside. In addition, AirBnB said its nonprofit wing will provide properties for 1,000 people.

The governor has also vowed to protect local landowners from being “victimized” by opportunistic buyers. Green said Wednesday that he instructed the state attorney general to work toward a moratorium on land transactions in Lahaina, even as he acknowledged that would likely face legal challenges.

Since the flames consumed much of Lahaina just over a week ago, locals have feared that a rebuilt town could become even more oriented toward wealthy visitors.

The cause of the wildfires, the deadliest in the U.S. in more than a century, is under investigation. But Hawaii is increasingly at risk from disasters, with wildfire rising fastest, according to an AP analysis of FEMA records.

The local power utility faced criticism for leaving power on as strong winds from a passing hurricane buffeted a parched area , and one video showed a cable dangling in a charred patch of grass, surrounded by flames, in the early moments of the wildfire.

“Facts about this event will continue to evolve,” Hawaiian Electric CEO Shelee Kimura wrote in an email to utility customers Thursday. “And while we may not have answers for some time, we are committed, working with many others, to find out what happened as we continue to urgently focus on Maui’s restoration and rebuilding efforts.”

The search for the missing moved beyond Lahaina to other communities that were destroyed. Searchers had covered about 45% of the burned territory as of Thursday, the governor said.

Corrine Hussey Nobriga, whose home was spared, said it was hard to lay blame for a tragedy that took everyone by surprise, even if some of her neighbors raised questions about the absence of sirens and inadequate evacuation routes. The fire moved quickly through her neighborhood, not far from where crews were sifting through ash and debris looking for human remains.

“One minute we saw the fire over there,” she said, pointing toward faraway hills, “and the next minute it’s consuming all these houses.”

The search was marred by intermittent cellphone service and misleading information on social media. There were also challenges finding people who may be in hospitals, hunkered down at friends’ houses or in unofficial shelters that have popped up. Many people made fliers and were going door to door in search of loved ones.

The FBI’s Honolulu division said it is helping Maui police locate and identify missing people. Immediate family members who are on Maui can provide DNA samples at the Hyatt Recency in Kaanapali beginning Friday, and those elsewhere can contact the FBI for instructions.

Judy Riley, who has been working with families seeking relatives, said false leads and a sense that “no one is in charge of the missing” have contributed to a sense of despair.

“If you are looking for the missing, it’s easy for people to slip through the cracks,” she said.

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This story has been updated to correct the spelling of the name Nobriga in one instance.

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Kelleher reported from Honolulu and Weber from Los Angeles. Contributing to this report were Associated Press journalists Michael Casey in Concord, New Hampshire; Jennifer McDermott in Providence, Rhode Island; Seth Borenstein in Washington, D.C.; and Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Missouri.

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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — Parishioners mourned the dead and prayed for the missing Sunday in Hawaii churches as communities began looking ahead to a long recovery from last week’s wildfire that demolished a historic Maui town and killed more than 90 people.

Maria Lanakila Church in Lahaina was spared from the flames that wiped out most of the surrounding community, but with search-and-recovery efforts ongoing, its members attended Mass about 10 miles up the road, with the Bishop of Honolulu, the Rev. Clarence “Larry” Silva, presiding.

Taufa Samisoni said his uncle, aunt, cousin and the cousin’s 7-year-old son were found dead inside a burned car. Samisoni’s wife, Katalina, said the family would draw comfort from Silva’s reference to the Bible story of how Jesus’ disciple Peter walked on water and was saved from drowning.

“If Peter can walk on water, yes we can. We will get to the shore,” she said, her voice quivering.

During the Mass, Silva read a message from Pope Francis, who said he was praying for those who lost loved ones, homes and livelihoods. He also conveyed prayers for first responders.

Silva later told The Associated Press that the community is worried about its children, who have witnessed tragedy and are anxious.

“The more they can be in a normal situation with their peers and learning and having fun, I think the better off they’ll be,” Silva said.

Meanwhile, Hawaii officials urged tourists to avoid traveling to Maui as many hotels prepared to house evacuees and first responders.

About 46,000 residents and visitors have flown out of Kahului Airport in West Maui since the devastation in Lahaina became clear Wednesday, according to the Hawaii Tourism Authority.

“In the weeks ahead, the collective resources and attention of the federal, state and county government, the West Maui community, and the travel industry must be focused on the recovery of residents who were forced to evacuate their homes and businesses,” the agency said in a statement late Saturday. Tourists are encouraged to visit Hawaii’s other islands.

Gov. Josh Green said 500 hotels rooms will be made available for locals who have been displaced. An additional 500 rooms will be set aside for workers from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Some hotels will carry on with normal business to help preserve jobs and sustain the local economy, Green said.

The state wants to work with Airbnb to make sure that rental homes can be made available for locals. Green hopes that the company will be able to provide three- to nine-month rentals for those who have lost homes.

“There’s very little left there,” Green said, holding up a map of the area titled “Buildings Damaged in Maui Wildfires Lahaina Area.”

More than 2,700 structures were destroyed in Lahaina and “an estimated value of $5.6 billion has gone away.” But mostly there are people suffering and the government is continuing to work to find them, he said in a video statement Sunday,

As the death toll around Lahaina climbed to 96 authorities warned that the effort to find and identify the dead was still in its early stages. The blaze is already the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century.

“I will tell you this, as a physician, it is a harrowing sight in Maui,” Green said. “When those providers, the police and this division, do come across scenes in houses or businesses it is very difficult for them because they know, ultimately, they will be sharing with our people that there have been more fatalities. I do expect the numbers to rise.”

Crews with cadaver dogs have covered just 3% of the search area, Maui Police Chief John Pelletier said Saturday.

Lylas Kanemoto is awaiting word about the fate of her cousin, Glen Yoshino.

“I’m afraid he is gone because we have not heard from him, and he would’ve found a way to contact family. We are hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst,” Kanemoto said Sunday. Family members will submit DNA to help identify any remains.

The family was grieving the death of four other relatives. The remains of Faaso and Malui Fonua Tone, their daughter, Salote Takafua, and her son, Tony Takafua, were found inside a charred car.

“At least we have closure for them, but the loss and heartbreak is unbearable for many,” Kanemoto said.

As many as 4,500 people are in need of shelter, county officials said on Facebook, citing figures from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Pacific Disaster Center.

J.P. Mayoga, a cook at the Westin Maui in Kaanapali, is still making breakfast, lunch and dinner on a daily basis. But instead of serving hotel guests, he’s been feeding the roughly 200 hotel employees and their family members who have been living there since Tuesday’s fire devastated the Lahaina community just south of the resort.

His home and that of his father were spared. But his girlfriend, two young daughters, father and another local are all staying in a hotel room together, as it is safer than Lahaina, which is covered in toxic debris.

Maui water officials warned Lahaina and Kula residents not to drink running water, which may be contaminated even after boiling, and to only take short, lukewarm showers in well-ventilated rooms to avoid possible chemical vapor exposure.

“Everybody has their story, and everybody lost something. So everybody can be there for each other, and they understand what’s going on in each other’s lives,” he said of his co-workers at the hotel.

Hawaii Island Mayor Mitch Roth warned that the recovery effort will be a “marathon not a sprint.” In order to keep the effort “coordinated and thoughtful,” Roth urged Hawaii residents to contribute money to established nonprofits and hold off on donating physical items because there is not yet a reliable distribution system in place.

The latest death toll surpassed that of the 2018 Camp Fire in northern California, which left 85 dead and destroyed the town of Paradise.

The cause of the wildfires is under investigation. The fires are Hawaii’s deadliest natural disaster in decades, surpassing a 1960 tsunami that killed 61 people. An even deadlier tsunami in 1946 killed more than 150 on the Big Island.

Fueled by a dry summer and strong winds from a passing hurricane, the flames on Maui raced through parched brush covering the island.

The most serious blaze swept into Lahaina on Tuesday and destroyed nearly every building in the town of 13,000, leaving a grid of gray rubble wedged between the blue ocean and lush green slopes.

Elsewhere on Maui, at least two other fires have been burning: in south Maui’s Kihei area and in the mountainous, inland communities known as Upcountry. No fatalities have been reported from those blazes.

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Weber reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press journalists Haven Daley in Kalapua, Hawaii; Ty O’Neil in Lahaina, Hawaii; Bobby Caina Calvan and Beatrice Dupuy in New York; Sara Cline in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and Pat Eaton-Robb in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed to this report.

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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.