honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Wednesday, July 3, 2002

OUR HONOLULU
Akionas are first family of firefighters

By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist

Working for the Honolulu Fire Department is a family affair. Talk to a firefighter named Beck and he could be the father or one of three sons. The Akionas are even more prolific.

Firefighter Debbi Akiona of the Kahalu'u station thinks she knows why so many sons of firefighters follow in their fathers' footsteps.

"The nature of the work is family oriented," she said. "We see more of the people we work with than we do of people at home. Police officers have 12-hour shifts. We have 24. We have breakfast and lunch together."

Firefighters take turns cooking at the station. And they don't often complain about how it tastes. There's a story about a picky eater who looked over the cook's shoulder while he was stirring the pot.

"Do we have to have THAT again?" the picky eater said.

"You don't like this?" said the cook. "I can fix that."

He picked up a pot of delicious stew and threw it out the door.

"I can see you don't feel like salad, either. We'll fix that."

Out the door flew the salad and everybody went hungry. The picky eater soon got another job.

The reason I drove across the island to talk to Debbi on her day off was that the Akionas will be attending the Patriots Celebration tonight to honor Honolulu's police officers, firefighters and medical emergency crews at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.

You could have a celebration just for the Akionas. Debbi brought a group picture of seven firefighters, all from her family. There's her father, Peter Akiona Jr. (retired), followed by brothers Byron (Ala Moana station), Aaron (retired from Waimanalo station), Kevin (Kane'ohe station), Peter (McCully station), Debbi (Kahalu'u station) and brother-in-law Timothy Brennon (Kailua station).

Debbi is a pioneer female firefighter in Our Honolulu. "Why did you want to be a firefighter?" I asked.

"I wanted to be an architect," she said. "My father told me I should take the civil service test because it would be good practice."

She scored an above-average 87. The father of a girlfriend laughed when he heard Debbi had taken the firefighters' test. That ticked her off so she went into training. Female firefighters were so unusual then that a television newsperson did an interview.

"After that, I couldn't back out," said Debbi.

Debbi said this is her third station. She has been in all kinds of stressful situations.

The one that sticks in her mind was the call to Sacred Falls after the 1999 rockslide that killed eight people on Mother's Day. The firefighters had to decide which of the injured people needed help the most.

"We didn't have enough resources," Debbi said. "Some of them died before we could get to them. That's the worst part."

Reach Bob Krauss at 525-8073.