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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Saturday, August 17, 2002

Fire officials take steps to lessen risk at Aliamanu

By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer

The Federal Fire Department will temporarily base a fire engine and company at Aliamanu Military Reservation after the Army's former garrison commander said he had "grave concerns" about the Pearl Harbor-based response to the community.

"From a commander's perspective, I am seriously concerned that your continued failure to meet established response times could be grounds for legal action should loss of property and/or life be attributed to delayed fire truck response," Col. William R. Puttmann said in a June 19 letter to the Pearl Harbor Naval Station commander.

Defense department regulations require that "first arriving structural apparatus shall meet a travel time of five minutes for 90 percent of all alarms."

Three fires since Aug. 19 of last year left a number of AMR residents homeless. In addition, concerns about deteriorating and failing ground wiring and faulty sewers in the housing project, which was built in the late 1970s, have left some residents feeling frustrated.

Whether the Federal Fire Department meets the defense department requirement at AMR continues to be the subject of Army and Navy debate.

Puttmann, whose tenure recently ended as U.S. Army Hawai'i garrison commander, said in his letter that "fire records overwhelmingly show (federal) fire truck responses to the AMR community are not within established DOD standards."

But the Federal Fire Department, which the Navy oversees on O'ahu, disagrees.

Chief Michael Jones said his department meets the requirement based on its area of responsibility — which includes firefighting and emergency medical support for Army, Navy and Marine Corps facilities and personnel. The Air Force has its own department.

The Honolulu Fire Department is a co-responder to AMR, and spokesman Capt. Richard Soo said the city generally responds within four to five minutes.

"When you look at mutual aid, if you are on the far end of your boundaries, you take longer to get there, and that's why we have mutual aid," said Honolulu Fire Chief Attilio Leonardi.

But the Army remains concerned about the federal fire department response.

"The Federal Fire Department provides the primary emergency response for AMR," the Army said yesterday in a statement. "Failure to meet established standards places all families, Army and Navy, living at AMR at risk. The safety of our military families is our highest priority."

The Army operates the housing with assistance from the Navy. Navy and Marine Corps personnel also live at in the Aliamanu community.

Records show that of 161 emergency calls originating from AMR between July 1, 2001 and July 15, 2002, the Federal Fire Department arrived within five minutes just 14 times.

On 21 calls, the response was five minutes to six minutes. The fire department responded in six to nine minutes to 90 of the calls and nine to 14 minutes for 35 calls.

Three fires over the past year have raised additional concerns:

• On Aug. 19, 2001, a fire at an AMR apartment complex left about 30 people homeless. Its cause has not been determined.

• On June 11, a fire in an underground distribution box resulted in power being cut to 30 duplexes.

• On Aug. 1, a fire that the Army said may have been caused by an unattended barbecue grill displaced 16 people.

In a Jan. 10 letter to Puttmann, Navy Capt. R. D. Hughes, the former commander of Naval Station Pearl Harbor, said the Navy had set aside money to reopen its Pearl Harbor fire station partly because of a need to house the Federal Fire Department's ambulance and paramedics, and partly out of recognition of a need to improve response times to submarine piers, the Makalapa compound, Camp Smith and the Aliamanu housing area.

Hughes said re-opening the station would "significantly improve" response times.

The station was opened June 13, but records show that of 18 Federal Fire Department responses to AMR since then, only one was under five minutes.

Following the Aug. 19, 2001, fire at AMR, Puttmann wrote to Hughes and requested a risk assessment to determine if a fire company was required in the area. Puttmann raised concern about response time then, too.

Deborah Coble, a civilian resident of AMR whose husband is a Navy chief at Pearl Harbor, sent a letter on Aug. 4 to the Navy asking that a fire engine be placed within AMR housing. She said 25th Infantry Division (Light) commander Maj. Gen. Eric T. Olson met with residents last Monday to notify them that the fire engine and federal fire crew of four personnel would be based at AMR.

Jones on Thursday said the fire company will be temporarily assigned 24 hours a day, seven days a week at AMR until a formal risk assessment is conducted.

"For us, it's taken getting a general (Olson) involved to have a solution," Coble said. "I don't think it should have taken a two-star to say this is a real problem."