The state has cited the Honolulu Fire Department for not following proper safety procedures and exposing firefighters to asbestos in the fatal Marco Polo condominium fire.
The Hawaii Occupational Safety and Health Division, part of the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, fined the fire department $7,000 on Thursday after determining it “failed to reduce the level of exposure” and “ensure prompt decontamination procedures” following the largest high-rise blaze in Honolulu history.
The citation said that only one company properly bagged its contaminated protective firefighting gear and equipment at the scene, while the rest did not do so until returning to their stations — some even waiting until the end of their shifts the next morning. As a result, the fire trucks and stations may be contaminated with asbestos and other hazardous materials, HIOSH said.
“This job is dangerous enough already. Moreso when you expose our firefighters to unnecessary risk; that’s even worse,” said Bobby Lee, president of the Hawaii Fire Fighters Association. “What is also very concerning for me is the fact that they lied to the public. They took a position that they didn’t violate anything. They misled the public also in addressing this issue after the fire.”
The firefighters’ union filed a complaint with HIOSH on July 21 about the “incomplete decontamination procedures” and has publicly criticized department leadership for not immediately cleaning and removing asbestos from personal protective equipment, exposing more than
40 percent of HFD’s firefighters who battled the blaze to potential health hazards.
HFD spokesman Capt. David Jenkins said the department received the citation notice Friday and is reviewing it. “To make any kind of comment right now is premature,” he said, adding that HFD will respond at a later time.
Scores of the 568 residential units at the 36-story complex remain uninhabitable from the July 14 fire that killed three people. A fourth person died after being hospitalized following the blaze.
The fire department said in August it received confirmation that the Marco Polo building contained asbestos at the time of the fatal fire, and that it was taking additional precautions to ensure the safety of the firefighters’ gear that may have been exposed to the hazardous material. More than 120 firefighters responded to the seven-alarm fire that damaged more than 80 units, including 30 that were destroyed.
“(In general,) these could be significant cases with a value in excess of seven figures, over a million dollars depending on the facts,” said Honolulu personal injury attorney Rick Fried. “There could be significant claim cases for sure. It’s a very painful disease, and what these people go through is not much different than a smoker who has lung cancer. It’s pretty miserable.”
Asbestos is a fiber that is commonly found in soil and was widely used as a fire retardant and insulation material in older buildings. It is known to cause mesothelioma, an aggressive and deadly form of cancer when asbestos fibers are inhaled.
“What happens is, over time, if you had chronic exposure, the fibers get into the lungs. It’s when it crosses the line and becomes mesothelioma, we don’t have an easy cure for that, so we try to prevent it,” said Dr. Elizabeth Tam, chief of the pulmonary and critical care division at The Queen’s Medical Center. “It’s true they should have wrapped things up and cleaned things with masks on.”
The department may request informal discussions with the state and has up to 20 days of receipt to contest the citation.
“They were exposed, and we raised concerns because of this and were ignored by the department,” Lee said. “It’s unfortunate, you know — it really is. In the end, all we wanted was the fire department to do their job. It’s a hazard of this career. The long-term exposure is where the problem lies. The department clearly has an obligation to take whatever precautions they can to help keep our firefighters safe, not just today or tomorrow, but throughout the life of their careers.”
