Japan to send $2M to aid US response to deadly Hawaii fires

ISTANBUL

Japan on Wednesday announced plans to send the US $2 million in humanitarian aid over wildfires in Hawaii that have claimed at least 106 lives.

"Japan and Hawaii have enjoyed a friendly relationship over the years and been engaging in active exchanges in various fields," Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said at a news conference, according to the Tokyo-based Kyodo News.

Hayashi also said he received reports of Japanese households on Maui Island being damaged in the blaze, though their circumstances are still not confirmed.

According to the Japanese Consulate in Hawaii, hundreds of the country’s citizens live in the archipelago state.

The financial burden of the losses caused by the wildfires in Hawaii, which local authorities have called the “largest natural disaster” in the state’s history, has reached $6 billion with around 2,200 structures destroyed.

A total of six fires broke out last Tuesday, devastating the Big Island and Maui.