Death toll from Hawaii wildfires increases to 55 as search for survivors continues

Officials warned death toll could rise after state's largest ever natural disaster' left dozens of people injured

The ferocious wildfires that ravaged the Hawaiian island of Maui have killed at least 55 people, officials said Thursday, warning that the death toll will likely continue to rise.

The catastrophic fires, which turned neighborhoods into barren wastelands and destroyed more than a thousand structures, are likely the state's largest ever natural disaster, the governor said. Deaths are expected to surpass that of a 1960 tsunami that killed 61 people.