A California Woman becomes first tourist to be identified as victim of devastating incident Maui Wildfire in which 116 people have died.
Maui County officials said Tuesday that Theresa Cook, 72, was among eight more people identified as victims.
Cook was a resident of Pollock Pines in El Dorado County and was vacationing in Maui when the wildfire broke out.
According to ABC10, he was last seen near a banyan tree at 5:30 p.m., when a fire broke out in the area on August 8.
He was identified along with seven others killed in the devastating fire as authorities continued the painstakingly lengthy process of DNA testing the charred bodies.
So far, 21 victims have been identified in the devastating fire that gutted historic downtown Lahaina.
One of the reasons the identification process has been slow is that many bodies were found after the forest fire in Lahania spread rapidly.
About 1,000-1,100 names remain on the FBI’s tentative, unconfirmed list of unidentified people after wildfires destroyed the historic seaside community of Lahaina on Maui, according to ABC10.
But the Family Assistance Center has collected DNA from only 104 families so far, Julie French, who is helping with efforts to identify the remains by DNA analysis, told the outlet.
Airport Officials are not releasing any names of the missing out of respect for the families.
Officials have confirmed 116 deaths since the deadliest incident Forest fire in America for more than a century.
He also urged relatives of the missing to come forward and provide DNA samples, saying the small number provided so far risked hindering efforts to identify any remains found in the ashes.