KAHULUI, Hawaii - Search teams with cadaver dogs have combed through 25 per cent of the Lahaina disaster zone from the Maui wildfires, discovering the remains of a 99th victim on Monday, but perhaps hundreds more people are unaccounted for nearly a week after the disaster in Hawaii.

Fuelled by winds gusting up to 128kmh, an inferno burning at temperatures that the governor said reached 538 deg C raced from the dry grasslands outside town into the historic resort town of Lahaina on Aug 8, turning block after block into ash. 

The deadliest US wildfire in more than 100 years destroyed or damaged more than 2,200 buildings, 86 per cent of them residential, causing an estimated US$5.5 billion (S$7.5 billion) in damage.

Recognising the anxiety of survivors still looking for their loved ones, Maui County police chief John Pelletier told a news conference that local, state and federal rescue workers were proceeding as fast as possible, but that there was a “reverence” that encumbered the task.

“It’s not just ash on your clothing when you take it off. It’s our loved ones,” Mr Pelletier said, relating the instructions that a director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) gave rescue workers in a briefing. 

Mr Pelletier said officials hoped to get through 85 per cent to 90 per cent of the disaster zone by this weekend.

A team that started with one cadaver dog now has 20. 

“Patience. Prayers. Perseverance. That’s what we need,” Mr Pelletier said. 

Officials have cautioned that identifying victims would be a grim and difficult task, because the fire burned so intensely that even metal structures melted.

Maui County briefly relaxed rules allowing Lahaina residents back to their homes but suspended that decision on Monday after curiosity seekers abused the system, clogging streets used by rescue workers, officials said.

They also feared human remains may be trampled on. One person was arrested for trespassing, Mr Pelletier said. 

Help is arriving for those left homeless. Nearly 2,000 housing units, including 400 hotel rooms, 1,400 Airbnb units and 160 private homes, were being made available, Hawaii Governor Josh Green told the news conference.

More than 3,200 residents of Hawaii have registered to receive federal assistance, and that number is expected to rise, Mr Jeremy Greenberg, Fema’s director of response operations, told reporters.

Meanwhile, the search for missing loved ones continued.

Officials declined to estimate how many remained unaccounted for, but they promised they were meticulously verifying the status of all. 

In one bit of positive news, officials on Sunday discovered 60 people taking refuge at a private home that had been isolated without telephone communication or electricity.

Many of those 60 had been listed as unaccounted for, Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen said.

A crowdsourced database circulating on social media showed some 1,130 individuals listed as “not located” on a list of about 5,200 people as at Monday afternoon. The database includes names collected from missing person notices posted at shelters, as well as information submitted by loved ones.

The American Red Cross had received over 2,500 calls from people trying to find and reunite with relatives and friends missing from the fire, said Mr Chris Young, senior director for operations and readiness.

The cause of the fire has not been determined, and many survivors have said they went unwarned before the inferno rapidly swept through town. Some people were forced to flee into the Pacific Ocean to escape the flames.

Officials have urged tourists to stay away from West Maui, but said other parts of the island remained open for business.

Mr Green acknowledged the difficult balance between the need to keep people from obstructing recovery efforts and Maui’s extreme dependence on tourism revenue. 

“It would be potentially catastrophic if no one travelled to the island,” he said.

Some residents, however, voiced their frustration with tourists who chose to stay in Maui.

“We don’t want tourists here at all,” Mr Basil Spring said in a post on Monday on X, formerly known as Twitter. “We need the time to heal as an island and to take care of our Lahaina ohana,” he said, using a Hawaiian term for “family”.

“Get out and stay out.” REUTERS