LAHAINA >> The last of the 100 known victims of the wildfire that destroyed Maui’s historic town of Lahaina in August was identified Friday as a 70-year-old woman whose husband, sister and several other relatives also died in the fire.

Maui police said they identified the victim as Lydia Coloma.

Coloma’s husband, Salvador Coloma, 77, was identified as a fire fatality in August.

Her sister-in-law, Tina Acosta, in Honolulu told the Associated Press that Lydia Coloma’s sister, brother-in-law and a niece and nephew, also died in the fire. Lydia Coloma was from the Ilocos Sur province in the Philippines.

This was the first victim identification since Nov. 11 when Sharlene Rabang, 78, of Lahaina, was listed as the 99th fatality.

For months, Coloma’s name has been on the list of four people who were reported as missing to the Maui Police Department after the Lahaina fire. The three remaining people on the MPD/FBI unaccounted for list are: Paul Kaspryzycki, Robert H. Owens and Elmer Lee Stevens.

Acosta told The Associated Press she didn’t know why the final identification took so long.

“We were waiting,” she said.

Identifying those who died in the deadliest wildfire in the U.S. in more than a century has been a long, arduous process. Forensic experts and cadaver dogs have had to sift through ash searching for bodies that were possibly cremated, and authorities have been collecting DNA samples from victims’ family members.

The DNA testing allowed officials in September to revise the death toll downward, from 115 to at least 97. The toll rose slightly over the next month as some victims succumbed to their injuries or as police found additional remains.

The number of those who remain unaccounted for has also fallen, to just a few from a previous high of nearly 400, according to the Maui Police Department.

The victims ranged in age from 7 to 97, but more than two-thirds were in their 60s or older, according to Maui police’s list of known victims. Several were residents of a low-income senior apartment complex.

Authorities reopened the burn zone to residents and property owners who lost homes while urging returning residents not to sift through the ashes for fear of raising toxic dust.

Authorities began clearing debris from residential lots this month. The waste is being wrapped in thick industrial plastic before the Army Corps of Engineers takes it to a temporary debris storage site south of Lahaina.

The disaster devastated Maui and Hawaii more broadly. Caught in a hellscape, some residents died in their cars, while others jumped into the ocean or tried to run for safety.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation. It may have been sparked by downed power lines that ignited dry, invasive grasses. An AP investigation found the answer might lie in an overgrown gully beneath Hawaiian Electric Co. power lines and something that harbored smoldering embers from an initial fire that burned in the morning and then rekindled in high winds that afternoon.

The blaze destroyed more than 2,000 buildings, most of them homes, and is estimated to have caused $5.5 billion in damage.

Nearly six months after the blaze, about 5,000 displaced residents are still living in hotels or other short-term accommodations around Maui. Economists have warned that without zoning and other changes, housing costs in already expensive Lahaina could be prohibitively costly for many after rebuilding.

In the announcement releasing Lydia Coloma’s identification, Maui County officials said, “We will continue to work closely with the families to ensure they are updated and supported throughout this process.”

County officials said today that MPD and their partners “have been working tirelessly to ensure that proper protocols are followed while notifying the families of the victims involved. Our priority is to handle this situation with the utmost sensitivity and respect for those who are grieving.”