The Hawaii Fire Department will move operations this summer from its Central Fire Station in downtown Hilo to a midtown building on Kilauea Avenue so the 90-year-old station can undergo long-overdue repairs.
“There is quite a bit of work that needs to be done for safety reasons, like removing some of the ceiling … so we don’t have to worry about collapse issues, and recaulking the roof so it doesn’t leak,” Chief Kazuo Todd told the Tribune-Herald on Friday. “And working with some of the structural issues that we have, like falling of concrete.”
“The electrical system was, basically, designed back in 1973 — and designed for a world that didn’t have quite as much electronics,” he said. “So, as things have changed and the electrical needs have increased, we’ve had to make some changes, but we’ve run into some issues when we put the building on generator.”
A statement from Mayor Mitch Roth’s office described the move from the 466 Kinoole St. station to 1382 Kilauea Ave., a building that’s housed the YWCA of Hawaii Island’s Healthy Start Program, as “temporary” — but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be brief.
“On the short end, it’s probably several years before we have the building back up and going again,” Todd said. “Obviously, we’re going to move it along as fast as we can, but this goes onto the list of projects that (the Department of Public Works) is trying to move forward on. … But right now, for safety reasons, we wanted to get our guys out. And then, we can start the process of putting together a long-term plan to get the building into a functional state. Simultaneously, I’ll be moving ahead with trying to get designs done and funding to get a new station.”
Todd said one concern about the Central Fire Station location that renovations and upgrades won’t fix is that the building, at the corner of Kinoole and Ponahawai streets, is in a tsunami inundation zone.
“Upon my becoming fire chief, one of my concerns was we’re trying to dump a lot of money into this existing site, but it’s still in the tsunami inundation area,” Todd said.
According to Todd, prior plans for major renovations a couple of years ago pegged the cost at $8 million.
“We’d still have to evacuate the building if a tsunami’s coming. And we’d be putting a lot of money into that, in a disaster, (and it) may not even be a functional building afterwards, right?” he said. “My premise was that we had some land up the hill where they’re currently building the dispatch center, and I’d been looking to continue on with the plan — originally drawn up 20 years prior — to build Central Fire Station up there.”
The problem with that plan, Todd said, is that the section of the new dispatch center property that would be needed for fire trucks to enter and leave a station had been given away as an easement to the next door neighbors in Mohouli Senior Housing.
“So, the ability to use that land as our Central Fire Station is, basically, no longer possible,” Todd said.
According to Todd, Gov. Josh Green has set aside four acres of land mauka of the $33 million dispatch center under construction on Mohouli for a new Central Fire Station.
In the short term, he said, the plan is renovate the Kinoole Street building “to take care of some of the structural concerns.”
“We had a ceiling collapse issue in one of the bathrooms, and we have, basically, plumbing that was installed in 1973, so there are showers where the water doesn’t drain and broken toilets that won’t flush.”
Todd said he’s grateful to Roth and Finance Director Deanna Sako for giving a go-ahead for the renovation and move to temporary digs, but he doesn’t know what the price tag will end up being.
“I do know we’re probably going to have to spend several million to come in and remediate some of the safety issues that are currently there,” he said.
The public is welcome to pose its questions and concerns about the plans at fire@hawaiicounty.gov or by phone at (808) 932-2900.
In addition, Todd invites the public to join him from 5-7 p.m. Wednesday at the Aupuni Center Conference Room, 101 Pauahi St. in Hilo, where he can answer questions and address concerns.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.