Police on the Hawaiian island of Maui have released the names of 388 people still unaccounted for following devastating wildfires earlier this month.
In a video statement released late Thursday, Maui Police Chief John Pelletier said he understood the release of the list could cause pain for those whose loved ones are still missing, but the police department felt it could help with the investigation.
The list contains the names and points of contact for each missing person reported. Pelletier asked anyone who finds their own name on the list or with information regarding a person on the list to contact Maui police or the FBI.
The Associated Press reports that following a 2018 wildfire in Paradise, California, officials were able to reduce a list of missing people from 1,300 to about a dozen within a month of releasing a list of those reported missing.
In an update Monday, Maui County officials said all single story, residential properties in the disaster area had been searched and teams were beginning to search multistory residential and commercial properties.
As of Tuesday, the police department said the August 8 fires killed at least 115 people and left an unknown number of others missing, making them the deadliest in the U.S. in more than a century.
Some information for this report was provided by the Associated Press and Reuters.
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