When you hear sirens and see the white, orange and blue City and County of Honolulu ambulance 34 race through Kaimukī, the paramedics and emergency medical technicians are likely coming from the newest Honolulu Emergency Medical Services station on Waiʻalae Avenue.
The Kaimukī EMS station is centrally located in Kaimukī in the Civil Beat Plaza, making it what Emergency Medical Services Director Jim Ireland said during a blessing ceremony Tuesday is an “ideal place for us.”
Kaimukī is a busy area filled with families, kūpuna and businesses, Ireland said, and the call volume necessitated expanded ambulance service. The closest stations to Kaimukī were at Wailupe Fire Station and the Pāwaʻa I unit at the Waikīkī Fire Station.
First responders from the Kaimukī EMS station have responded to more than 200 911 calls and transported more than 100 patients to emergency rooms since the station opened on Oct. 4. The ambulance serves Kaimukī, Pālolo Valley and Kāhala and serves as a backup ambulance for East Oʻahu and East Honolulu.
The city considered purchasing land and building a station next to the Kaimukī Fire Station on Koko Head Avenue, but Ireland said that construction would cut into the mountain, disrupt a cultural site, cost upwards of $10 million and take three to five years to build.
“We can stay here at the current rent for 80 years for what it would have cost us to build that station,” Ireland said.
Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi credited EMS leaders for responding to the demand and need for medical coverage in Kaimukī and applauded the paramedics and EMTs for their hard work.
“When you have to call an ambulance, chances are you’re having the worst day of your life at that moment in time,” he said at the blessing, adding that emergency medical services are critical to the city’s public safety. “These are just people who really want to serve, who understand the need to serve and find a way to do it. It doesn’t get any better than that.”
Kahu Brutus LaBenz provided the traditional oli during the blessing ceremony on Tuesday with a pule focused on prosperity and longevity.
When asked by LaBenz what energies they wanted in the space, Paramedic Reece Fujikawa said “positive, good vibes,” and EMT Riley Agtaguem said “welcoming, healing energy.”
Fujikawa, who supervises the station, told reporters that he sees the new station as a positive for the community.
“It’s a big impact having this Kaimukī station here,” he said. “Having this station here will have a big impact on call volume and the amount of calls we can respond to in the area.”
Fujikawa said that he enjoys the new space, which has two crew restrooms, a kitchen, bathrooms and showers for the four paramedics and four EMTs in the 850-square-foot space.
“Just having that area to just relax and decompress is big,” he said.
The ambulance will be parked on Koko Head Avenue from around 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and behind the Goodwill Hawaiʻi drop-off bay at night.
The Kaimukī EMS station marks the city’s 24th EMS facility, and the department has plans to expand medical coverage across the island.
Ireland told reporters that the step pay structure that the city implemented last year has already created improvements in recruiting and retaining paramedics and EMTs. The EMS department plans to hire 24 people in the coming weeks to fill vacancies and currently has 14 EMTs and four dispatchers in the academy, according to Ireland.
“By January we will have less than 10 vacancies in the whole department for a full force of about 310 people,” he said.
According to Ireland, the department plans to open the next EMS station on West Oʻahu by the end of the month and hopes to expand services on the North Shore and Windward Oʻahu over the next two to three years to address growing call volumes and gaps in services.
Haley Lehman can be reached at haley@alohastatedaily.com.
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