SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — Mexico’s Foreign Ministry is reporting that at least two Mexican nationals died in the wildfires that ravaged the Hawaiian city of Lahaina in Maui last week.
Personnel from the Mexican Consulate in San Francisco have been sent to the island to assist the victims’ families and to help make funeral arrangements.
According to a news release sent by the foreign ministry office, consular personnel have been in Maui since Aug. 12 providing emergency passports, identification documents and information about U.S. assistance available to people who may have been displaced or lost their jobs as a result of the fires.
It says personnel are “also in contact with local authorities about the procedures and protocols to follow, given the emergency on the island.”
Over the past decade, many Mexican nationals have migrated to Hawaii, especially the island of Maui, in search of jobs.
According to Maui County data, 11.6 percent of the island’s population, or about 19,000 residents, identify themselves as Latino.
So far, the total number of people killed in the fires is 111, but it’s a figure expected to climb.
Only six of the victims have been publicly identified; all were over the age of 70, according to Maui police.
