Hawaii Island is under extreme drought
conditions. Pohakuloa is a dry windy area, and now it
appears no functioning fire department and emergency
service. In the past days 1000 Marines have been training
at Pohakuloa. Please look into this dangerous situation.
Mahalo. Jim Albertini of Malu 'Aina 2/4/26
"From
the Federal Fire Fighters of Hawai`i Union, Local 263:
Today 1/28/26 the
Army has made the terrible decision to shutdown the Fire and
Emergency Services for Pohakuloa Training Area due to the
lack of proper staffing . The U.S. Army has refused to hire
new firefighters despite an ongoing staffing shortage. As a
result, today marks the first day that the station will be
completely shut down, with all personnel placed on
administrative leave beginning at 1500 hours.
At present, there
are approximately 1,000 Marines actively training in the
area.
This decision
leaves a significant portion of Hawaiʻi Island without fire
protection coverage and places the public, critical
infrastructure, and natural resources at serious risk.
The State of
Hawaiʻi and the County of Hawaiʻi must be made aware that
this situation creates an unacceptable public safety hazard.
The Army currently maintains a mutual aid agreement with the
County to provide fire response coverage between mile
markers 17 and 47 on Daniel K. Inouye Highway, commonly
known as Saddle Road. With the station shut down, this
coverage can no longer be reliably provided.
This development is
especially concerning given that negotiations are currently
underway between the State and the Army regarding an
extended lease.
This level of
operational failure is not indicative of a partnership that
Hawaiʻi can depend on to ensure public safety.
I have met with
representatives from the Governor’s Office to request that
any future agreements include strict minimum requirements
for firefighter staffing levels and apparatus capabilities,
including specified water gallonage, to ensure adequate fire
protection. These standards are essential for an area of
this size, complexity, and risk profile.
For years, we have
advocated for proper staffing levels commensurate with the
scale and hazards of this jurisdiction. In the past, an
acting Fire Chief was formally reported after authorizing an
illegal backburn during a training-related wildfire, which
resulted in the destruction of thousands of acres and the
loss of endangered species unique to that area."
PTA is zoned a conservation district, the
highest protected land status. In the final EIS on the
PTA lease, the military admitted starting 1281 wildfires
at PTA in the last 50 years. They add, that records prior
to 2012 are incomplete so the actual number of fires could
be much higher. The military also added that with
increasing extremes in climate change, the likelihood of
wildfires will only increase.
--
Jim Albertini Malu 'Aina Center For Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box 489 Ola'a (Kurtistown) Hawai'i 96760
Phone 808-966-7622 Email j...@malu-aina.org Visit us on the web at www.malu-aina.org
