Death toll rises to 80 in Maui wildfires as survivors begin returning to communities in ruins

LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — The death toll has risen to 80 as a result of the wildfires that decimated parts of the island of Maui this past week, officials in Hawaii said Friday.

The number of confirmed fatalities in the 9 p.m. announcement by the County of Maui increased from the previous figure of 67.

Gov. Josh Green had previously warned the death toll would likely rise as search and rescue operations continue. Authorities set a curfew from 10 p.m. until 6 a.m. Saturday.

“The recovery’s going to be extraordinarily complicated, but we do want people to get back to their homes and just do what they can to assess safely, because it’s pretty dangerous,” Green told Hawaii News Now.

Cadaver-sniffing dogs were deployed to search for the dead, Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen Jr. said.

Blackened hulks of burned-out cars, the pavement streaked with melted and then rehardened chrome. Block after block of flattened homes and businesses. Incinerated telephone poles and elevator shafts rising from ashy lots where apartment buildings once stood. A truck bed full of glass bottles, warped into surreal shapes by the furious heat.

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