Local National Guard members and reservists are training to spot danger and respond to hazards in support of the upcoming defueling of the Navy’s Red Hill fuel storage facility, set to begin in October.

During a training exercise Friday, 14 of them went through a course on Ford Island that simulated a fire aboard a submarine. Lt. Col. Graham Perry, operations officer for Joint Task Force Red Hill, explained that “a submarine is an enclosed environment, a confined space, and it is probably the best replication of the facility they will be in in Red Hill.”

It’s just one phase of training for JTF Red Hill’s Roving Security and Fire Watch teams. As the defueling process starts, they will patrol the facility in shifts, checking pipes, flanges, valves and wires and looking for any potential leaks, spills or fires.

“They’re learning how to respond to these incidents, familiarizing themselves working together in confined spaces,” said Capt. Mackenzie Yuen, the team’s leader. “(We’re) really going through diverse scenarios to train them in order to respond to fire or stressful situations.”

Several have prior experience as civilian and military firefighters, but for many this is their first experience with it. Perry said the Navy’s Federal Fire Department has primary responsibility for dealing with any fires at Red Hill and that the roving teams’ main job is to monitor the facility.

“They are really there as to be a first layer of defense, to be a set of eyeballs, to immediately pick up a radio or phone and call the regional dispatch center or 911,” Perry explained.

In November 2021, fuel from the Red Hill facility contaminated the Navy’s Oahu water system that serves 93,000 people, including both military families and civilians living in former military housing areas. The facility’s massive underground tanks sit just 100 feet above a critical aquifer most of Honolulu relies on for drinking water. In 2022 the Pentagon formed JTF Red Hill to defuel the tanks, which currently hold about 104 million gallons of fuel.

“This personally means a lot to me being so close to home physically, and also emotionally and in my heart,” said Airman 1st Class Joshua Benigno of the Hawaii Air National Guard, who, like most of the members of the team, volunteered for the assignment. “Being so close to home, you know, it could have been my water — and thankfully, it wasn’t — but it’s nice to be able to help out my community in any way that I can.”

Benigno is a member of the 297th Air Traffic Control Squadron and normally works on radar and weather systems. He said that in training for duties at Red Hill, “we go through four to five scenarios a day. And they progressively get harder and harder because the military works in a crawl, walk, run approach. And I think that definitely helps.”

The Ford Island firefighting facility they’re training in, built in 2020, forces them to respond to fires on the ceiling and around the walls. Senior Chief Petty Officer Donovan Hatch, an instructor with real-world experience putting out fires on submarines, said “this is the next-generation firefighter trainer. So the one that I went through years ago was very basic in design. This is pretty new.”

Hatch said he’s been impressed by the dedication shown by the Guard members and reservists.

“I think they’re definitely up to the task,” Hatch said. “Following this course, when we finish up with the advanced, then they’ll go through an industrial firefighting course … and they are pretty much in an industrial environment up at Red Hill.”

While the submarine model is similar to conditions at Red Hill, Hatch acknowledged there will also be unique challenges. Nothing is quite like Red Hill.

Perry said that in addition to the Ford Island training, “these teams have been within the Red Hill facility if not every day, every other day training, so they are training exactly in the location where they will be expected to conduct their duties.”

Built underground during World War II, the unique architecture that made the facility nearly impossible for enemy forces to locate or attack also posed unique challenges for operations and maintenance. Well before the November 2021 fuel spill, internal documents raised concerns about safety at Red Hill, particularly fire risks.

A March 2014 Pentagon budget request for $50 million in improvements to Red Hill’s fire suppression system noted that analysts had concluded “the existing underground fueling facility at Red Hill has inadequate fire protection infrastructure and communication system” and that “fueling operations in the underground complex create high potential for fire incident.”

The request further asserted that “fires involving fuel are extremely difficult to extinguish. This is even more so in the underground tunnels of the Red Hill tank farm because of the confined spaces. Also the ventilation within the tunnel as well as the remote location and inadequate fire protection infrastructure external to the tunnel make this a high risk operation.”

But Benigno said he feels the training is preparing him for the task, telling reporters Friday that “even in those situations where it’s very smoky and you can’t see anything and there’s fire blazing and it gets really hot, you know that your teammates are always going to have your back, your team leader is going to have your back, your chain of command is always going to have your back.”