Despite influx City emergency crews responding to anthrax scares have been handling two months worth of work in a single day, but fire department officials say people who drop off their suspicious packages at the neighborhood fire station aren't doing anyone any favors.
of calls, HazMat
remains focused
HFD urges residents to call
911 if they see suspicious packagesBy Rod Antone
rantone@starbulletin.com"This started over the weekend. People have been dropping off mail at fire stations in Kalihi, Waianae, Hawaii Kai and Makakilo," said HFD Spokesman Capt. Richard Soo.
"This puts the entire fire station at risk," said HFD Spokesman Capt. Richard Soo. "We would prefer for them to call 911."
The latest incident took place at the Kuakini Fire Station yesterday afternoon, where a Nuuanu man thought he was saving fire fighters a trip to his house.
"He brought it by and had some concern about his wife feeling a little ill, he had bagged it and zip-locked it and brought it by," said Acting Hazardous Materials Capt. Clint Nuuanu, who operates the HazMat 1 team at Kuakini. "Basically I told him the paperwork would be processed and that it would be taken to the Department of Health.
"I guess he didn't want to bother us by calling us to come get it but we tell them it's no problem, it's our job."
It's a job that for almost two weeks has gotten much busier for both hazardous materials teams out of Kuakini and Kapolei. From Oct. 12 to yesterday, HazMat responded to 158 calls for suspicious packages and unknown chemicals.
"We used to average 10 to 12 calls a month," said Soo. "Now we have days like Tuesday when we get 26 calls in one day. The hope is that sooner or later things will wind down and people will go back to normal."
On Tuesday a number of calls regarding suspicious packages came after a letter to a downtown architectural firm tested positive for anthrax. Later tests by HazMat crews and the Navy confirmed that the initial results were wrong.
Even so, the incident does not help calm an already nervous community, and many residents have been calling 911 whenever a piece of mail looks suspicious, or they see a powdery substance they cannot identify.
For HazMat crews they know that every call must be treated seriously, however they are concerned about not being able to train for catastrophes.
"We're always asking ourselves, 'What if this happens?' and then we try and plan for it," said HazMat Capt. Mel Tsutsumi, who operates the HazMat 2 team out of Kapolei. "But with all these calls we haven't been able to do any training."
Tsutsumi said prior to Oct. 12 when the surge of calls started coming in, HazMat crews were working on such scenarios as a power plant catching on fire.
"It's our job and I know the public is panicked, but we still need to pre-plan for big disasters."
Tsutsumi and his crew yesterday responded to a couple of suspicious package and unknown chemical calls. One was at the Dole Shopping Center, where a powdery substance in several stalls of the men's bathroom prompted someone to call 911.
Fire crews isolated six people who had either come in contact with the substance or came in contact with those who had contact with it.
While putting on protective equipment one HazMat technician looks at a reporter and says, "Aren't you guys getting tired of this? We are." Then after suiting up with face masks and air tanks, several HazMat crew members walk into the deserted mall.
For a moment the scene resembles astronauts on a lunar surface, wandering off to collect samples, which is exactly what they were going to do.
"First we're going to test the pH level (acidity test)," said Tsutsumi.
"Unless it's within a certain range, we know that nothing could live in the sample, and that it could not be a biological threat.
He adds, "We're not going to use the anthrax detector every time," referring to the $15,000 device that the city purchased to test for biological threats.
"A decision like that depends on the situation. This is a small sample so we want to do a pH test first. If it was piled up or something, or spread all over one of the movie theaters it'd be different."
The sample was so small that HazMat crews had a hard time finding enough to conduct a pH test. They describe the unknown chemical involved as minute particles located between bathroom tiles which looked like dust.
It doesn't matter. The test is done and the scene is secured. Those in isolation are cleared to leave the premises without being decontaminated. All of it part of the job which fire officials say they must take seriously.
"That's when it gets dangerous, when you don't take it seriously," said Battalion Chief Paul Gerard.
"We gotta be careful ... because if we get frustrated and don't concentrate on the job one day somebody may die."
