Lahaina Wildfire Death Toll Now At 102
A 68-year-old Lahaina woman died in March from injuries sustained in the blaze last summer. But the death is just now being made public.
The Aug. 8 wildfires on Maui have now claimed at least 102 lives, officials announced Monday.
Officials identified the latest victim as Claudette Heermance, a 68-year-old Lahaina woman who died March 28 following 119 days of hospice care on Oahu.
She was hospitalized at Maui Memorial Medical Center on Aug. 8 and then transferred the day after the fire to Honolulu鈥檚 Straub Medical Center, which has , according to Ryan Wilson, a spokesperson for the Honolulu mayor鈥檚 office.
Heermance鈥檚 clinical treatment for burns that covered 20% of her body was complicated by other health issues, Wilson said. She started receiving hospice care on Dec. 1.
Although Heermance died in March, it wasn鈥檛 until Monday that the Honolulu Medical Examiner鈥檚 Office confirmed her as a victim of the Lahaina wildfire, raising the official death count for the first time since February.
Wilson did not provide a complete explanation for the three-month gap between the day Heermeance died and this week’s medical examiner’s ruling that her death had been caused by the fire. But he said Honolulu Chief Medical Examiner Masahiko Kobayashi finalized the autopsy report and notified Maui police of the cause of death determination on Friday.
Maui police then waited to confirm with the medical examiner that Heermance鈥檚 family had been notified before publicizing her death and revising the Lahaina wildfire death count, Wilson said.
Maui Police Department spokesperson Alana Pico deferred questions to the Honolulu Medical Examiner’s Office, since Heermance died on Oahu.
The official death toll last rose on Feb. 13 after the located the remains of a 76-year-old man who had been on the agency鈥檚
Two names remain on the list, down from a high of 388 people during the chaotic first days and weeks after the fire.
The Lahaina blaze was the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century. While early estimates put the death toll as high as 115, DNA testing later revealed that some remains were fragmented or commingled. On Sept. 15, officials revised the number of the dead to 97.
The count later rose to 101, with officials identifying people who succumbed to fire-related injuries weeks after the blaze. Authorities also discovered remains from two additional fire victims in October and February.
Civil Beat鈥檚 coverage of Maui County is supported in part by a grant from the Nuestro Futuro Foundation.
