By Craig Kojima, Star-Bulletin
Firefighter Jonathan Wong recalled the Sacred Falls effort.
Isle firefighters
trained to keep
emotions in checkA Hauula rescuer has seen
By Susan Kreifels
death at the falls before; he and
others will be ‘debriefed’
Star-BulletinFirefighter Jonathan Wong is reserved about the chaos and death he encountered at Sacred Falls on Sunday.
He's trained to hold his emotions.
"A lot of it is personal with the victims," said Wong, who was one of the first six rescuers to arrive at the Sacred Falls landslide. "You can't share everything at this point."
Wong is a firefighter at Hauula. He's witnessed death at Sacred Falls already -- he was on the rescue team that went up for two police officers and a pilot who died in a helicopter crash during a search for a missing hiker in July 1995.
By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Rescuers scanned the mountains during yesterday's futile
try to find a missing woman.
"You get used to the way things are," Wong said.Despite his professional reserve, you know he feels the agony of the victims.
That's why the Honolulu Fire Department provides what it calls a "critical incident stress debriefing" team after rescue efforts where death and high public attention are involved.
Deputy Fire Chief John Clark said rescue teams are trained to "submerge their emotions" so they don't interfere with doing the job: stabilizing a disaster and helping people.
"Later the emotional side kicks in," Clark said. The debriefing team encourages, but doesn't force, rescue workers to talk out their emotions.
Clark said it takes much longer to "close the wounds" without talking about their experiences.
Clark said the service would be offered to the 75 to 80 rescue workers involved in the rescue operation.
Wong has tried to keep his mind set on how well everyone reacted to the disaster.
Wong arrived at the scene about 3:30 p.m. Sunday and left about 6:30 p.m. as darkness approached. "You're not looking at time. You keep scrambling. In all our minds, we were thinking 'hang in there. Help is coming.' "
By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Fire Chief Attilio Leonardi talked about the
valley's narrowness, with Battalion Chief James Arciero.
The firefighters immediately set up a triage operation -- helping those most seriously injured but with the best chance of survival, and comforting those who have to wait for help.Then came the job of recovering the bodies of those they couldn't reach in time.
When Wong returned to the fire station that night, "you try to sleep. You run everything through your mind -- the Monday-morning quarterback. But you have to block it out."
He was back at the rescue scene at 5:30 a.m. the next day.
In the end, as he headed home for four days off work, his assessment of the rescue: "Everyone did an amazing job."
Army medical
unit flies high
in tragic situationHelicopters from Wheeler transport
By Gregg K. Kakesako
critically injured to Oahu hospitals
Star-BulletinIt was just a little past 3 o'clock on Sunday afternoon when Army flight medic Shannon Berry and her on-call team were activated.
Throughout the year the 68th Medical Company keeps a four-member crew and a UH-60 Black Hawk on "first up" status at Wheeler Army Air Field's hangar 206 fully loaded and ready to respond to any civilian emergency.
Sunday, by 3:05 p.m., pilot Warrant Officer Mark McClure was in the air on his way to Sacred Falls.
After landing 10 minutes later in the parking lot at the Sacred Falls trail, the Army team began loading the first of two lifts of casualties.
Berry, 20, said it took "about seven to 10 minutes" to take the first set of casualties to Queen's Medical Center.
Those airlifted by the Army to Queen's and Kapiolani medical centers were "people who needed surgery," Berry said.
"Several had lost consciousness. Others had difficulty breathing."
As soon as the Black Hawk landed at the Sacred Falls park, another Army helicopter was requested by civilian authorities because of the severity of the situation.
The two Black Hawks made three separate flights to various Oahu hospitals with the critically injured.
Berry said the helicopters took a total of 10 patients from the area on Sunday. Seven were taken to Queen's and three to Kapiolani.
At least three were children and one was the wife of Navy sailor.
"Some of them had trauma wounds to the head, arms and legs," Berry said. "The worst was a woman who may lose her leg.
"A lot of them are going to require surgery. There were a lot of broken arms and broken bones."
At 6:20 p.m. the last of the critical Sacred Falls victims had been transferred from Hauula and the two Black Hawks returned to Wheeler.
Berry's Black Hawk is configured to carry two litters, two pilots, a crew chief, an Army medic and a intensive care technician who works for the city. It also is equipped with portable cardiac monitors, baby delivery and burn kits, oxygen monitors and a heavy duty winch.
Each crew works a shift lasting a little more than 24 hours.
Since 1974, the Army and the state has participated in the Military's Assistance to Safety and Traffic program. Besides medevac missions, like the ones performed Sunday, MAST pilots supplement the fire department by assisting in rescue missions, especially at night.
The 68th Medical Company (Air Ambulance) also transports traffic accident victims, transfers critically ill hospital patients, or flies key medical personnel, blood or organs on Oahu as needed.
