Death toll from Hawaii wildfires rises to 99

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from the Maui wildfires in the U.S. state of Hawaii reached 99, authorities said Monday.

Maui Police Chief John Pelletier said at a press conference that "there are 99 so far," and about 25 percent of the affected area has been searched.

"The scale of destruction is incredible," said Hawaii Governor Josh Green.

More than 2,200 structures have been destroyed by the blaze, with roughly 86 percent of them being residential buildings, according to the governor.

In an interview on Monday, the governor warned that 10 to 20 more wildfire victims could be found daily as search crews continued combing through scorched ruins on the Hawaiian island of Maui.

The wildfire is now the deadliest in more than a century in modern U.S. history, surpassing the Camp Fire that erupted on Nov. 8, 2018, in California and killed at least 85 people.

The Lahaina fire, which has burned 2,170 acres (around 8.78 square kilometers), was 85 percent contained as of Monday, Maui County officials said in a Monday update.