Military plans to move
fire station at KilaueaCounty firefighters will be trained
to cover areas left unprotected
HAWAII VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK >> A U.S. Army fire station on the grounds of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park will be moved to Pohakuloa Training Area, 70 miles away by road, in January 2005, the Army announced yesterday.
The Army originally planned to close the military camp fire station in mid-2004, but Hawaii County fire Chief Darryl Oliveira requested a delay to provide more time for the extensive training county firefighters will need before taking over the military camp coverage. The move will leave the national park with firefighting crews skilled in forest and brush fires but not focused on fighting building fires.
The park will continue to have a state-of-the-art fire engine for structural fires, but no crews available on a 24-hour basis to operate it, said park Superintendent Jim Martin.
"If people are up the Strip Road (fighting a brush fire), the engine won't move," he said.
The Army fire station has also responded in the past to fires in Volcano Village outside the park.
Without 24-hour-protection, the community of about 2,200 people will depend on a volunteer fire department there, Martin said.
"It's luck if everybody's in place at the right time," he said.
A 24-hour county fire station in Keaau, 25 miles from Volcano Village, has to send engines on a slow climb from near sea level to the village at 4,000 feet, Martin said.
The Army has had the fire station within the park because of the location there of Kilauea Military Camp, a low-cost vacation resort operated for military personnel.
With a limited budget, the Army now has a greater need for the firefighters at Pohakuloa Training Area, where firing of live ammunition sometimes causes brush fires, an Army statement said.
All 11 civilians employed at Kilauea will be transferred to Pohakuloa.
Reaction from Betsy Mitchell, a Volcano community leader, was positive. "I think it will work out fine," she said.
Last year, the community needed an ambulance, she noted. With the assistance of U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, an agreement was worked out in which the U.S. General Services Administration rents an ambulance, the military camp provides space for it and the county Fire Department provides staffing.
Inouye is scheduled to visit the Volcano community on Monday to deal with the fire situation, Mitchell said. "I have complete faith in him," she said.
Besides fighting fires, all county firefighters will receive training as paramedics and on dealing with hazardous materials, he said.
Besides the five county paramedics with the ambulance at Kilauea now, 15 more firefighters will be needed, Oliveira said.
Finding money for that many additional employees will be "very, very difficult," he said.
