A Northern California woman on vacation on Maui was the first tourist to be identified as a victim of the deadly wildfire that destroyed Lahaina.
On Tuesday, the Maui Police Department officially confirmed Theresa Cook, 72, was among the dead in Lahaina. According to family members who spoke with KCRA-TV, Cook, who lived in Pollock Pines, had been traveling alone. KCRA reported Cook had been evacuated from her Lahaina hotel and left on foot. Family lost contact with her after that.
As of Tuesday, Maui County officials confirmed 115 people died in the Aug. 8 blaze. Twenty-one people have been publicly identified after their next of kin were notified. Twenty-two more have been identified, but officials haven’t yet located family members to notify. Officials have asked family members with missing loved ones to come forward and give DNA samples for comparison with unidentified remains.
“MPD and assisting partners have been working tirelessly to ensure that proper protocols are followed while notifying the families of the victims involved,” the police department said in a statement. “Our priority is to handle this situation with the utmost sensitivity and respect for those who are grieving.”
The death toll is expected to rise, and there are fears many of the missing may be children; school was out when the fire tore through Lahaina, meaning a large number of children were home alone while their parents were still at work. On Tuesday, a special agent from the FBI’s Honolulu office said between 1,000 and 1,100 people are still unaccounted for.