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Maui is about to wrap up its ocean and land search for individuals still unaccounted for after the Aug. 8 Lahaina wildfire.

As of Monday, 99% of the burn zone and the ocean fronting it has been searched for human remains, leaving the county ready to begin the next phase of its operation — the removal of toxic materials from the scorched landscape.

The confirmed death toll has remained at 115 for a week, but only 45 people have been identified by name after their families were notified. Six others have been identified with their names withheld because their families haven’t been located or notified.

Names of the confirmed dead now emerge slowly in twos and threes.

What is saddest to me is the admission Friday by Maui Police Chief John Pelletier that some of the dead may never be found or identified.

Flames from the fire roaring down the mountain incinerated parts of Lahaina making it s impossible in instances for search crews and cadaver dogs combing the rubble of the burn zone to find remains.

“This is the honest answer. We are doing everything we can to recover as much as we can of a human being as possible,” said Pelletier.

Pelletier mentioned the 9/11 terrorist attacks. At Ground Zero, 22 years after the some 3,000 perished .

He said of Lahaina: “It is possible years from now we find something or someone to lead us to believe we have human remains.”

DNA identification from extremely destructive events like the Lahaina fire is a  painstaking process, especially when it involves crushing just small shards of bone to extract DNA. That extracted genetic material must then be matched to DNA of the deceased or their relatives.

It’s not always possible to extract DNA from human remains.

Collagen inside bones, a source of DNA, can be destroyed in high temperature fires like those on Maui, John Byrd said in .                                                                                

Byrd is the laboratory director of the Defense Departmentʻs POW/MIA Accountability Agency, headquarted at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. The agency sent six forensic anthropologists to Lahaina to help.

The DPAA is missing from past military conflicts going back to World War II.

Another problem with the Lahaina search and rescue effort is that there is no handle on exactly how many people are still unaccounted for.

A validated list of 388 individuals compiled by the FBI that was released Thursday is expected to be reduced, but officials cautioned the number would fluctuate as some people would also likely be added.

Maui Police Chief John Pelletier says the county has received more than 100 calls from informants saying people on the list are alive. Those reports must be verified before a name can be taken off the list.

And the validated list is only part of the picture because it includes only individuals whose first and last names are known and who were reported missing by people with verified phone numbers.

Other unaccounted for people have been reported but not with enough detailed information to work on.

“The 388 names are a subset of a larger list. I don’t want to lose sight of the fact that we still have hundreds of other names where we still need more information,” said Steven Merrill, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Honolulu field office. 

One of the last areas to be searched by divers was the ocean fronting the burn zone where many jumped into the water to escape the flames and explosions.

Maui Fire Chief Bradford Ventura said Friday diving crews did not get into the nearshore sea to search for remains until Aug. 19, more than a week after the fire.  He said it was necessary first to determine if the water contained pollutants that might harm the divers.

Experts from all over the country — experienced in examining human remains from disasters such as 9/11 and the 2018 Camp Fire in California, and some forensic experts who have helped Ukrainians uncover alleged Russian war crimes to assist.

But it is a slow and difficult process, and a sad one.

The sorrow of the Lahaina fire is the uncertainty for the families and friends of the missing as they wait for word about their loved ones — words that may never come.

Civil Beat’s coverage of Maui County is supported in part by grants from the Nuestro Futuro Foundation.