HFD makes plans
for new headquarters
and complex

The Kakaako Fire Houses: Are they haunted?

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By Rosemarie Bernardo
rbernardo@starbulletin.com

For 42 years, the Honolulu Fire Department has been without a permanent headquarters.

Since 1991, the Fire Department has been renting space at the Airport Industrial Park on Koapaka Street for about $330,000 a year, said Fire Chief Attilio Leonardi.

A new fire headquarters, an educational museum and a new or renovated three-bay Kakaako Fire Station No. 9 are being planned.

The city is negotiating with the owners of Chevron gas station next to the historic Kakaako Fire Station to acquire the lot for the new headquarters.

Construction is tentatively scheduled to start in May and to be completed in December 2004.

Plans are to build a 30,000-square-foot headquarters that will be closer to the Honolulu Police Department, Honolulu Hale and the emergency control center at the Municipal Building.

Permanent headquarters for the Fire Department has been placed on Mayor Jeremy Harris' construction priority list. Assistant Chief Eldon Franklin of the Wastewater Division and architect Gregory Hee were put on the project last summer to speed up the project's plans.

"It's something the Fire Department thoroughly needs," Franklin said.

Plans for city project are estimated at a cost of $15 million to cover design, permits, site preparation and site construction costs.