2020-08-18 Fire Commission Regular Minutes

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Hawaii Fire Commission Regular Minutes August 18, 2020 Page 5 Deputy Perreira stated that the Task Force is working with the leadership of schools or complex areas and giving them input. They have gotten emails from teachers asking for input. They have done site visits. However, what one puts on paper and what is actually done are two different things. The plan has to match the actions. The Prevention Bureau is also working with the schools because Fire Prevention Week is coming up in October. They usually do visits at all the schools, do assemblies, take the fire truck and ambulance there, but that cannot happen this year. For the DOE, it's hard because they don't have standard guidelines and they were given options. Each school operates differently. There are different guidelines — 3 ft. vs. 6 ft. distancing; wear a mask, don't wear a mask, don't have to wear a mask when playing outside, under 5 don't need to wear a mask. That's difficult, a very big challenge. They give the schools recommendations, but they are a State agency. Chief Rosario reported that the last three weeks have been a difficult time for the Hawaii Fire Department. They lost two valuable members of the department, tragically. Fire Medical Specialist II, Jonathan Hara was killed in traffic accident in Volcano on his way to work in Hawaiian Ocean View. He was well -loved in the department. This Sunday, they are celebrating him with a pass and review past the Haihai Fire Station. Last weekend the department suffered its first line of duty death. Fire Equipment Operator Eric Hayashi became gravely ill while performing CPR on a victim. He passed away that night. He was working out of a station that they had been fighting for adequate personnel for decades. Laupahoehoe Fire Station, only has two personnel. They don't know if additional personnel would have made a difference. They were working in a very rural area. The initial ambulance came out of Honoka`a. This incident was in `O`okala. Subsequently, Fire Medic Specialist Carvalho, while working up the first cardiac arrest patient, then had to deal with a second cardiac arrest patient, a member of their own family. Basically, they had three guys there doing the best they could for two people. Two police officers out of Honoka`a-Laupahoehoe stepped up and helped out. They also sent out an additional unit from Hilo. He was given the best chance anybody could have possibly had. He was doing what he loved to do. Chief Rosario shared that he submitted testimony today against the nomination of a candidate for the Fire Commission. He did that because the candidate is the Division Chief for the Hawaii Government Employees Association. As a personal citizen, he found it a conflict that a commissioner that oversees a union would now oversee the Fire Chief that is charged with supervising and possibly disciplining union members. He submitted his personal views as a citizen, not as the Fire Chief. The second part of that is the commission will going through the process to select his replacement as the next Fire Chief. He doesn't know who the candidates are, but he heard the grapevine. He does not feel that the Mayor should make a nomination of a union official who endorsed him. His personal view is that it wasn't appropriate, and that is why he submitted the testimony. It was not to be disrespectful. He did not put anything in the testimony that