The official and confirmed death toll from Huawaii wildfires was revised down from 115 to 97, local media indicated on Friday.
Maui Police Chief John Pelletier announced the decrease of the previously announced death toll.
Authorities edited the number of deaths "amid a painstaking effort to catalog remains, many of which are incomplete and in a very degraded state," said the authorities.
They added that the number of deaths decreased after DNA analysis of the remains recovered consolidated some cases.
The earlier number was based on the number of body bags delivered to the morgue.
After the analysis, a number of non-human debris and remains were identified, said John Byrd, laboratory director with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
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