Firefighters are delayed
on Waikiki emergencies

They blame convention center
construction and expect
more problems

By Veronica Fajardo
Star-Bulletin

Firefighters are blaming state convention center construction for a two-minute delay in Waikiki emergency responses.

And despite a convention center official's assurances that traffic will improve once Kapiolani Boulevard work ends in two weeks, some worry traffic will worsen once the convention center opens.

Fire Capt. Robert Malandra of the Pawaa station, around the corner from the center, said when he compared this year's response times to last year's, what used to take two minutes now takes four.

This time last year, it took three minutes to drive to Ena Road from the Makaloa Street station. Now it takes five minutes, and even longer on a Friday night when traffic is heavy, Malandra said.

He said a person can become brain dead in four to six minutes without cardiopulmonary resuscitation or oxygen, and a fire can double or quadruple in size in a couple of minutes.

"Time is critical," he said. "Two to four minutes can make a tremendous amount of difference."

Malandra cites torn-up roads fronting the center and coned-off lanes as the cause of the slowdown in emergency response time.

Alan Hayashi, executive director for the Convention Center Authority, expects the delays for emergency vehicles to drop in the next couple of weeks with completion of construction along Kapiolani Boulevard.

"All lanes will be open, and with two more lanes we have every reason to hope that everything will work out," Hayashi said.

POSSIBLE ALTERNATIVES

He said if emergency delays continue, the authority will look at alternatives. Those include changing the timing of light signals and coning lanes.

"At this point let's not presume there's a problem," he said. "There will be shuttle buses and it's not as great an impact as some people are presuming."

Robin McCulloch, chief of the city Emergency Medical Services, said that agency has not noticed any significant differences in its response times, but he said the vehicles are much smaller than fire trucks.

"With their large vehicles, I can imagine the problems they must be having," McCulloch said. "We are able to use alternate routes unaccessable to fire trucks to bypass the area."

McCulloch said he's pleased with the accommodations for emergency vehicles at the center.

RESIDENTS PREDICT PROBLEMS

Some residents aren't so sure.

"There's going to be problems for emergency vehicles at that intersection because of where the convention center is located," said Robert Sweeney, who has lived in the Waikiki area for seven years.

Bobbie Jennings has watched the convention center rise pylon by pylon from the balcony of her 10th-floor Atkinson Drive apartment. "We sit here and watch the traffic day after day," Jennings said. "If even a small problem occurs we watch the cars along Kapiolani start to pile up."

Area resident Larry Hurst, who used to work for an ambulance service, said he understands the importance of two minutes in an emergency.

"Other people think: two minutes, no big deal. But it concerns me," he said.

CALLS TO STATION DOUBLE

The slowdown in emergency response comes at a time when the Pawaa station, one of the busiest on the island, saw its number of calls in July double over the previous month.

The station logged 129 calls in August, compared with an average of 60 calls in previous months.

Malandra attributes the increase to a change in the way dispatchers handle medical alarms. In major trauma cases, both an ambulance and fire company are dispatched to the scene simultaneously.

He said the most direct route into Waikiki from the Makaloa Street fire station is along Kapiolani Boulevard, through one of the busiest intersections on the island.

"Right now, because of construction, all the cars slow down when they reach the convention center," Malandra said. "They're stopped and we usually end up going into the oncoming lane of traffic to get by."

Malandra remains skeptical traffic will improve once the convention center opens.

"Even if they bus people in, you're talking about hundreds of buses loading and off-loading people," he said."When there's a convention on, I have a feeling it's going to be gridlock, but we will have to wait and see."