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Construction begins
for HFD headquarters
Construction has started on a three-story headquarters in Kakaako giving identity to the Honolulu Fire Department and more public visibility and accessibility.
Okada Trucking Co. workers recently started excavating the site for the 31,750-square-foot building at South and Queen streets and are expected to pour concrete for the foundation this week.
The building is to be topped off at the end of the year and completed in July or August 2005, said Honolulu Fire Chief Attilio Leonardi.
Leonardi started working on plans for a new headquarters under the direction of former Fire Chief Frank Kahoohanohano when he was a captain 15 years ago. "It's a pleasure to have it finally come together," he said. "For us, it's an identity. We're a major organization in the city."
A dedication for the headquarters and an educational museum to be housed in the historic Kakaako Fire Station, which is next door on the makai side at 620 South St., is expected to be held in mid-October. Construction and renovation costs are estimated at almost $15 million.
Leonardi said the new site will also offer more office and parking space for the administration that has at least doubled in the last decade.
A large conference room and office space for staff members who oversee fire operations will be on the first floor of the building.
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The administration, Fire Prevention Bureau and an emergency operations center will be on the second floor.
A section designated for the fire chief will be on the third floor, as well as additional office space for planning and development and the Fire Prevention Bureau.
Contractors have started renovation at the historic fire station. The city had received approval from the state Historic Preservation Division at the beginning of July to renovate the old fire station -- listed under the state and national historic registries -- into an educational museum.
Old fire trucks, helmets and photos of major fires in Hawaii's history are some of the memorabilia that will be displayed in the museum.
"We have old fire trucks that people can't see because they're tucked in the old mechanical shop. We have helmets that go back to the 1850s. ... That's the kind of thing that shouldn't be hidden away," Leonardi said.
THE HEADQUARTERS will connect to the historic fire station and the newer fire station on the Ewa side of Queen Street.
Deputy Fire Chief John Clark noted that it has been 44 years since they had a permanent headquarters for the Honolulu Fire Department.
The downtown Central Fire Station was the headquarters for the Honolulu Fire Department before administrators temporarily moved in 1960 to the third floor of the old police station in Pawaa due to overcrowding.
The headquarters moved once again in 1991 to the Airport Industrial Park on Koapaka Street, where they have been leasing space for an estimated $350,000 a year.
Leonardi said the new headquarters will be closer to City Hall and more convenient for the public.
"We need to have a place where the public can visit so they can address their concerns," Leonardi said. "If you want fireworks permits, if you want to see a building inspector, our (current) place is hard to find."
A MEMORIAL to honor fallen firefighters is slated to be built in a garden between the headquarters and historic fire station. The names of three firefighters who were killed during the Pearl Harbor attack will be among those honored in the memorial.
Two fire captains, John Carreira and Thomas Macy, and a hoseman, Harry Pang, were killed and six other firefighters were wounded when enemy planes strafed Hickam Field.
Ceremonies and other functions will be held in the garden.
A stone monument will be erected to honor the smallpox victims who died during an epidemic in the mid-1850s. The historic fire station is built near a graveyard where 1,000 bodies were buried.
A vault and memorial park were built behind the Honuakaha Affordable Housing building on Queen Street to place the remains of those who were discovered during the construction of the building and to honor the smallpox victims.
Any bones discovered during the construction of the new headquarters will be placed in the vault, but borings that were administered at the site indicated no existence of skeletal remains.
