The number of victims of a fire that almost destroyed a town on the island of Maui now exceeds 100, the governor of the American archipelago of Hawaii, Josh Green, said on Tuesday, according to AFP.

Fires engulfed the Hawaiian island of MauiPhoto: Rick Bowmer/AP/Profimedia

“101 lives were lost,” he said in a televised speech. The town of Lahaina on Maui’s west coast was almost completely engulfed in flames. Thousands of buildings were destroyed, many of them turned into a pile of ashes.

The former capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii, which had a population of 12,000, is counting the dead, and authorities have already warned that the death toll could rise significantly in the coming days.

Relatives of the missing are advised to take a DNA test to identify the bodies, which are often unrecognizable.