HFD gets high-tech mobile command truck

By Scott Ishikawa
Advertiser Staff Writer

The Honolulu Fire Department got an early Christmas present yesterday in the form of a $467,000 mobile command center vehicle to better coordinate operations at the scene of major disasters.

Capt. Kenison Tejada and fireman Steve Nakasone receive the new mobile command center vehicle, which will transmit information from the scene of a disaster. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

The 21-ton vehicle arrived yesterday morning off the docks, and fire personnel were still removing bubble wrap from the interior in the afternoon.

"This is the James Bond of fire trucks," said Dean DeMello, HFD fire equipment supervisor. The vehicle has a camera on a 20-foot-high pole that can transmit images from two miles away, he said.

Using plasma TV screens inside, the fire or battalion chief also will be able to view video transmissions from the Fire Department helicopter camera or hand-held infrared cameras carried by firefighters. A firsthand view will help fire commanders make more prompt decisions at an emergency scene, DeMello said.

Fire Chief Attilio Leonardi said that until now the fire command base typically would be based "out of the trunk of a fire battalion chief's car."

"This vehicle is long overdue," he said. "Whether it's a high-rise fire, a brushfire or a chemical spill, its going to make our job a whole lot easier in analyzing and combating a situation.

"One lesson from 9/11 was the lack of a unified command, and this vehicle hopefully will help us with that and upgrade us against terrorist attacks," Leonardi said.

The Fire Department actually began lobbying for the command center two years before 9/11, he said, after the 1999 Mother's Day rockslide at Sacred Falls that killed eight people and injured 42 others. Because the area was accessible only by foot, fire officials had a hard time assessing the situation and injuries.

"At the time, our helicopter pilots were busy transporting the injured out of the area, and from the ground we couldn't fully scope the situation because it was so far in," Leonardi said. "In many situations, the pilots or ground crews have to relay the situation back to the fire commander by radio. Now, with the infrared and camera equipment atop the helicopter, we'll be able to see the whole scenario from the air on the ground."

DeMello said the command vehicle would be equipped with electronic equipment to help track local weather patterns, particularly high winds that can drive brushfires.

"Right now, without weather-tracking computers, part of our brushfire strategy is to 'surround and drown,' " Leonardi said. "The technology will eventually help us determine which way a brushfire may go."

Leonardi believes the mobile command center represents the last piece of the technology puzzle for his department. HFD last year received the airborne heat-detecting camera, which can peer through the dark for lost hikers and pinpoint hot spots in smoldering brushfires.

The department has six hand-held infrared cameras that firefighters can use to detect heat in a burning structure and transmit images back to the command center.

HFD spokesman Capt. Kenison Tejada said the command vehicle should be fully equipped and wired in a month. The truck has enough room inside for computer/radio equipment and fax machines, but Tejada said the department avoided designing a vehicle with too much technology.

"We didn't want too many permanent bells and whistles in it, since technology can become obsolete so quickly today," he said. "Our apparatus committee helped design the vehicle so we can make changes as the technology changes."

Reach Scott Ishikawa at sishikawa@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 535-8110.