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Changing Hawaii

By Diane Yukihiro Chang

Friday, April 7, 2000

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Hawaii’s firefighters
are hot stuff

MISCONCEPTIONS are terribly embarrassing when proven silly, such as my formerly romanticized notion of island firefighters. My face is burning, but I envisioned them as mostly tanned, good-looking hunks who rode around in big trucks, played volleyball a lot and, every so often, squelched a blaze or two.

That was before last Saturday morning, when a roaring seven-alarm fire gutted the 16th floor of the Interstate Building on King Street. Bystanders gazed upward as flames waved back at them through blown-out windows.

Meanwhile, firefighters from 23 companies (representing a third of the 60 companies on Oahu) clambered up and down stairs through billowing smoke. Once outside, some collapsed on the sidewalks, donned oxygen masks or got wheeled into the sanctity of idling ambulances.

So much for my idea of an easy job.

In fact, after learning about the entry requirements, duties and potential dangers of firefighters, my admiration for the 1,100-plus men and five women of HFD has been rekindled.

To join, candidates must pass a written test, interview, medical and drug screening, and be in top physical condition. They prove this by climbing an aerial ladder extended 70 feet and set at a 75-degree angle, running a mile in eight minutes, and swimming 100 meters in two minutes 15 seconds, then diving to the bottom of a pool to retrieve an object.

The grand finale is a field event simulating the shoulder-carry rescue of a person and extinguishing of a fire, all in two minutes 30 seconds.

Once accepted as recruits, they learn basics like fire prevention, first aid and cardiac life support, water safety and the handling of hazardous materials.

They're taught exciting stuff like rappelling mountains and buildings in Air Assault School, loading and unloading victims into helicopters for rescue operations and responding to plane crashes.

They're also trained in the mundane but necessary -- performing OSHA inspections, filing out paperwork, and the joys of cooking and cleaning so they can co-exist like a family.

And, all the while, potential peril awaits them out there, and we're not talking mischievous kids playing with matches.

IN this modern age, firefighters have more to fret over than the neighborhood pyromaniac, including:

Synthetic materials that spew forth toxic black plumes when ignited, in comparison to the old days when everything was made of wood, which emits "good" white smoke when burned.

The threat of terrorists and their weapons of mass destruction.

Radicals that plant bombs at public places like schools or abortion clinics, then set off secondary explosions to kill emergency response personnel.

Increased hazardous rescues, like the one resulting in the 1995 death of HFD pilot Peter Crown, whose helicopter crashed into the Koolaus above Sacred Falls.

The 60 percent of their calls in which they co-respond with emergency medical technicians, which means firefighters often arrive first at public tragedies or crime scenes like hostage situations or highly volatile domestic-violence incidents.

They face these possibilities -- and all for $2,468 a month in entry-level pay. And yet there's still a long waiting list for those wanting to become Honolulu firefighters.

Hey, Mr. Mayor. Give these guys a raise. They're hot stuff.

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Diane Yukihiro Chang's column runs Monday and Friday.
She can be reached by phone at 525-8607, via e-mail at
dchang@starbulletin.com, or by fax at 523-7863.