For the second day in a row, the Lahaina disaster has claimed the job of a government official who had a hand in the emergency response to the ferocious wildfires that laid waste to the historic town last week.

Maui Emergency Management Agency Administrator Herman Andaya, who on Wednesday said he did not regret not activating warning sirens as the flames that eventually destroyed Lahaina began to threaten the town, resigned effective immediately, Mayor Richard Bissen’s office announced Thursday.

The resignation came on the day after the state Department of Land and Natural Resources reassigned Kaleo Manuel, first deputy of the Commission on Water Resource Management, so that the commission and the department can “focus on the necessary work to assist the people of Maui recover from the devastation of wildfires.”

Manuel was at the center of an apparently delayed decision to divert stream water that could have been made available to battle the Aug. 8 wildfires that took hold around Lahaina.

The resignation and re-assignment came in the wake of the worst U.S. wildfire disaster in more than a century as federal, state and local response efforts continued to ramp up and the number of victims climbed to 111.

Meanwhile, one of nine patients from Maui admitted to Straub Medical Center’s Burn Unit in Honolulu since the Aug. 8 Lahaina wildfire died just before midnight Tuesday, according to the Honolulu Department of the Medical Examiner.

He was identified as Kirk Carter, 44, of Lahaina.

On Thursday night the Maui Police Department identified another fire victim as Donna Gomes, 71, of Lahaina. Next of kin were notified.

Maui police previously identified five other victims whose families have been notified, all of them Lahaina residents: Melva Benjamin, 71; Virginia Dofa, 90; Alfredo Galinato, 79; Robert Dyckman, 74; and Buddy Jantoc, 79.

On Thursday Bissen said that crews combing through the ruins of Lahaina looking for victims of the Aug. 8 firestorm had searched about 45% of the burned-out 5-square-mile area.

In an interview with CNN, Bissen said the number of missing, which has been estimated above 1,000, is still “fluid” and that he wasn’t exactly sure of the ultimate tally.

The FBI, he said, was helping with the search for the missing by analyzing cellphone data, and he said over 200 personnel with 40 cadaver-detecting dogs were searching the rubble.

There were 166 people in shelters overnight Wednesday, according to the American Red Cross. Another 279 people were moved from shelters into temporary housing in hotel rooms.

In Lahaina, Connor La‘akea Cabanilla Mowat grew emotional as he scanned the burned-out remains of his hometown.

“I’m standing here looking at my town and all I see is ash,” Mowat said in a telephone interview Wednesday afternoon, his voice breaking.

Mowat is part of a large family that saw 56 members, including himself, lose a total of 11 homes in Lahaina. The evacuees, now staying with family in Central Maui, have practically nothing left as they fled their homes in a hurry as the fire was approaching.

Mowat was able to return to the burned-out foundation of his plantation-style home on Aulike Street two days after the fire, and he saw nothing he recognized except a charred safe belonging to his mother-in-law.

Inside was an envelope containing cash savings, he said. But when he grabbed it, the paper disintegrated in his hands.

“We are fortunate in my family not to have lost anyone,” Mowat said, “but our town, my classmates, my cousins, my aunties are all missing someone. It’s so hard on our whole town, our history, our lives … are gone.”

Mowat’s cousin, Ashlyn Hi‘ilei Ani, said the Mowat and Cabanilla family, most of them workers in Maui’s hospitality industry, are devastated and shell-shocked, wondering how they’re going to rebound.

“I can’t even describe the feelings that they are feeling now,” said Ani, who has started an online Gofundme donation page for the family. The page is at gofundme.com/f/maui-fire-support-for-mowat-cabanilla-ohana.

In Wailuku, Andaya cited health reasons for resigning as Maui Emergency Management Agency administrator and Bissen accepted, the county announcement said.

“Given the gravity of the crisis we are facing, my team and I will be placing someone in this key position as quickly as possible and I look forward to making that announcement soon,” Bissen said.

Later, the mayor avoided answering a question on whether he agreed with Andaya, who on Wednesday defended the decision not to activate sirens as flames and smoke began to threaten Lahaina.

Bissen said the county will cooperate with a state attorney general’s office review of the wildfire response, and that the focus has to remain on the families and residents who lost loved ones and homes.

At a news conference on Wednesday, Andaya said sirens are used primarily for tsunamis, not for brush fires. He said the public is trained to seek higher ground when a siren goes off.

“Had we sounded the siren that night, we were afraid that people would have gone mauka, and if that were the case, they would have gone into the fire,” he said.

Andaya said the decision was made to alert the public through text messages and through radio and television only.

Andaya previously served as Maui’s deputy director of the Department of Housing and Human Concerns, assistant administrator of the housing division and the chief of staff under Mayor Alan Arakawa.

Late Wednesday DLNR said it was “re-deploying” Manuel, DLNR’s first deputy, from his role at the Commission on Water Resource Management.

“This deployment does not suggest that First Deputy Manuel did anything wrong,” a statement from DLNR said. “DLNR encourages the media and the public to avoid making judgments until all the facts are known.”

As fierce winds were blowing around power lines at 1 p.m. Aug. 8, the West Maui Land Co. said it reached out to Manuel to get permission to fill its private reservoirs to make the water available for possible fire control.

But permission didn’t come until about 6 p.m., according to the company.

“By then, we were unable to reach the siphon release to make the adjustments that would have allowed more water to fill our reservoirs. We watched the devastation unfold around us without the ability to help,” wrote Glenn Tremble of West Maui Land Co.

In its statement Wednesday night, DLNR said it would make no other comment.

On Thursday, conservationists and Native Hawaiians demonstrated their support for Manuel in a noontime rally at DLNR’s Kalanimoku Building on Punchbowl Street.

Wayne Tanaka, director of the Sierra Club of Hawai‘i, accused Gov. Josh Green and Land Board Chair Dawn Chang of unjustly removing Manuel from his role as water commission deputy.

However, Tanaka said the move wasn’t entirely unexpected, since Manuel helped to achieve more water equity progress in the implementation of the state water code during his tenure than has been done since its inception 40 years ago.

“Unfortunately, this has also made him a priority target for corporate water diverters like WMLC, Maui Land and Pineapple, etc…, who have now used their political connections and this horrible tragedy to roll back the historic progress made in restoring the public trust in water — something that will take potentially decades to get back,” Tanaka said in an email.

Earlier Thursday Maui County announced that fire investigators had concluded that the Kula and Olinda fires have distinct origins.

The 202-acre Kula fire was 80% contained. The 1,081-acre Olinda fire was 85% contained. The 2,170-acre Lahaina fire was 89% contained. And the Pulehu/Kihei fire remained 100% contained. While the fires were still active, no active threats were reported, officials said.

On Wednesday, Bissen announced that fiscal year 2023-24 property taxes will be waived for improved properties destroyed in the wildfires in Upcountry, Kihei and Lahaina.

The county explained that improved properties were not vacant land (prior to the disaster) and have a record on mauipropertytax.com under “Improvement Information” or “Commercial Improvement Information.” The properties have either a residential structure or a commercial structure, officials said.

The Department of Finance, which handles property taxes, is compiling a list of improved properties, by address and tax map key, that were “completely destroyed” by the fires.

Refunds will be issued by Oct. 31 to any of the affected property owners who already paid their taxes before the fires, officials said.