President Barack Obama is helping to raise money after devastating fires have engulfed his native state of Hawai’i.

According to local station KHON 2, Obama is working with the Red Cross on Monday (August 14) a telethon to assist those who were greatly impacted by the fires on the Valley Isle. In his telethon message, he urged listeners to support the relief efforts in what has been described as the largest fire on record in the country in more than a century.

“As someone who grew up in Hawaii, someone who has taken my family to enjoy the incredible beauty of that island and the hospitality of the people of Lahaina — we now find ourselves mourning the lives that are lost. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families that have lost so much,” Obama said. We have to step up. And we have to help those families, and we have to help Lahaina rebuild.

“I’m asking you to do everything you can to generously support the Malama Maui effort,” he continued. “If all of us — the Ohana, pull together and do as much as we can to give back to an island and a town and people who have given us so much — I’m absolutely confident that Lahaina and Maui and those families are going to be able to rebuild. But we’ve got to be a part of that. So please, provide generous support to the Hawaii Red Cross and to Malama Maui right now. Mahalo Nui Loa.”

From 5 am. to 10 a.m. HST, Malama Maui will be held during KHON’s Wake Up 2Day and Living808. All proceeds raised will help the Hawaii Red Cross “as it supports displaced families and those impacted by the wildfires.”

The wildfires are the most devastating in the history of the state with a death toll of almost 100 victims and thousands of residents who were forced to evacuate because of the deadly combination of land and atmospheric conditions that created the "fire weather,” CBS News reported.

Large portions of the historic town of Lahaina was destroyed as a result of the wildfires. On Sunday (August 13), Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said that  "very little left" of Lahaina, after more than 2,700 structures were destroyed and he expects the death toll to keep climbing.

"There are more fatalities that will come," Green told CBS News. "The fire was so hot that what we find is the tragic finding that you would imagine, as though a fire has come through and it's hard to recognize anybody."

Experts are still uncertain about what caused the fires,

"We don't know what actually ignited the fires, but we were made aware in advance by the National Weather Service that we were in a red flag situation — so that's dry conditions for a long time, so the fuel, the trees, and everything, was dry," said Maj. Gen. Kenneth Hara, commander general of the Hawaii Army National Guard adding that the low humidity and high winds, "set the conditions for the wildfires,"