EXCLUSIVE: The FBI has set up a mobile refrigerated morgue to store victims in Lahaina as the death toll from a firestorm reaches 93 and authorities say they’ve searched just three percent of the devastated city

A mobile refrigerated morgue has been brought to the devastated city of Lahaina as Maui officials continue their search for victims of the worst wildfire in the US in 100 years.

The death toll rose to 93 on Sunday, but Hawaii officials said it was likely to rise significantly.

John Pelletier, Maui’s police chief, said only three percent of Lahaina — home to more than 9,000 people — has been searched so far.

Officers with cadaver dogs went from house to house over the weekend, searching the charred buildings for human remains.

Buildings that had been searched were marked with an X — a custom adopted by U.S. officials after Hurricane Katrina — and those with bodies marked “HR”

Those still missing loved ones are asked to provide a DNA sample.

Pelletier described the blaze as “a fire that melted metal,” and said it was so serious that any body recovered must be identified using DNA.

As the deaths began to count, questions arose about how the fire started, how it got so out of control, and whether the official response was sufficient.

The cause has not yet been confirmed, but on Saturday LippSmith LLP and other law firms filed a class action lawsuit against Hawaiian Electric, alleging that the downed power lines caused the fire and that company officials “inexcusably kept their power lines under tension” despite fire warnings .

The company said on Sunday it could not comment on pending lawsuits.

“Our immediate focus is on supporting emergency relief efforts on Maui and restoring power to our customers and communities as quickly as possible,” said Jim Kelly, a company spokesperson.

“At this early stage, the cause of the fire has not been determined and we will work with the state and county in conducting their investigation.”

It is revealed that Hawaiian Electric failed to shut off the power lines when they were warned of hurricane-force winds approaching the island.

States such as California, which have a high rate of wildfires, are often deployed a “public power shutdown plan,” which involves intentionally shutting off electricity to areas where major wind events could cause fires.

California began implementing the plan after the 2017 and 2018 wildfires, which until last week were the most destructive and deadliest in the country in the past 100 years.

Maui’s firefighting efforts may have been hampered by a limited workforce and equipment.

Bobby Lee, president of the Hawaii Firefighters Association, said there are no more than 65 firefighters on duty in the county at any given time, with responsibility for three islands: Maui, Molokai and Lanai.

Lahaina resident Riley Curran said he doubted county officials could have done more given the speed of the flames.

He fled his home on Front Street after seeing the approaching fire from the roof of an adjacent building.

“It’s not like people were trying to do nothing,” Curran said. “The fire went from zero to a hundred.”

Elsewhere on Maui, at least two other fires have burned: in the Kihei area of ​​southern Maui and in the inland mountainous communities known as Upcountry. No fatalities have been reported in those fires.

The Upcountry fire affected 544 buildings, most of them homes, Green 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.

Josh Green, the governor of Hawaii, said 500 hotel rooms will be made available to local residents who are displaced. An additional 500 hotel rooms will be reserved for Federal Emergency Management Agency employees.

Some hotels will continue their normal operations to maintain jobs and support the local economy, Green said.

On Friday, Green asked residents with space to open their doors and take in Maui residents who have lost their homes.

The state wants to work with Airbnb to ensure rental housing can be made available to locals, and Green hopes the company will be able to provide three to nine month rentals for those who have lost their homes.

At least 2,200 buildings were damaged or destroyed in West Maui, Green said, almost all of them residential homes.

Island-wide damage was estimated at nearly $6 billion.

JP Mayoga, a cook at the Westin Maui in Kaanapali, has seen his job change from feeding tourists to cooking for the 200 or so hotel employees and their relatives who have been living there since Tuesday’s fire that hit the Lahaina community just south of the resort. destroyed.

His house and that of his father were spared.

But his wife, two young daughters, father and another resident all stay together in a hotel room because it is safer than Lahaina, which is covered in toxic waste.

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

Everyone has their story and everyone has lost something. So everyone can be there for each other and they understand what’s going on in each other’s lives,” he told the AP about his colleagues at the hotel.

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

The fires are Hawaii’s deadliest natural disaster in decades, surpassing a 1960 tsunami that killed 61 people.

An even more deadly tsunami in 1946 killed more than 150 on the Big Island.