Question: With the narrowed lanes and shoulders on H-1 between Punahou Street and Pali Highway, what should drivers do during rush hour when all lanes are packed bumper to bumper and an ambulance is trying to get through? I observed this situation once, during pau hana traffic going Ewa. The ambulance and drivers had nowhere to go.
Answer: The advice from the chief of the city Emergency Medical Services Division is for motorists to carefully move to the side to allow the ambulance to pass, if possible.
“The re-striping of the freeway that reduces wriggle room for vehicles is not a new challenge for EMS,” said EMS Chief Patricia “Patty” Dukes. “Many times, responding EMS vehicles must inch through highly congested streets during high traffic times.”
The biggest challenge of the demonstration H-1 re-striping project, she said, is the width of the lanes: 10 feet 6 inches versus an ambulance width of 9 feet 6 inches.
“That gives the EMS ambulance operators six inches clearance on each side of the vehicle,” Dukes said. “Now that’s a tight fit.”
She said EMS driver trainers teach and “refresh” EMS personnel to “drive with aloha” and to understand that when traffic is bad, other drivers on the road have no place to move.
“Additionally, EMS personnel are instructed to turn the siren from a ‘wail’ sound to a manual ‘bop-bop’ sound to reduce the anxiety of those drivers frantic to move out of the way of the ambulance,” Dukes said. Emphasized is the saying, “Patience is a virtue.”
Question: Could you find out what was the cause of the fire at Arcadia Retirement Residence on July 4? I couldn’t find any information in the newspaper or Internet, which I thought was strange since I heard seven firetrucks were dispatched to put out the fire. I heard that it may have started in the boiler room. Were any residents in danger, and how did they get all of the old and disabled people (my relative among them) evacuated?
Answer: No information was reported, likely because there wasn’t a fire and no one was evacuated.
The Honolulu Fire Department responded at 2:59 p.m. July 4 to a report of a fire in Arcadia’s boiler room, said HFD Capt. Terry Seelig.
“It turned out to be a steam leaking from boiler water pipes,” he said. “No persons were in danger and no evacuation was needed.”
But the leak had produced a fine mist that appeared to be smoke, which activated a fire detector and prompted management to report a fire.
When fire crews arrived, they also observed “a light haze” coming from the boiler room. At that point the captain in command advised the building manager to prepare for a possible evacuation.
But “it was quickly determined” that the cause was a leak in the hot-water lines coming from the boiler and not a fire, Seelig said.
That information was provided to all news media, Seelig said.
Putting that call into perspective, he pointed out that HFD responded to several other emergencies around the same time that day that “were of significance,” including a dryer fire that caused the evacuation of a Laundromat on Mokauea Street in Kalihi, a fire that destroyed a storage shed on Kamilonui Place in Hawaii Kai, a rescue call for five lost hikers on the Kuliouou Trail, and a rescue call for an unresponsive hiker on Koko Crater Trail.
MAHALO
To Fiona, Trey and Beth, who each took time out of their busy lives to be a willing witness. At about 1:30 p.m. Monday, July 23, in the Ala Moana Center parking garage, a vehicle reversed into my parked car, then drove off without regard to the damage inflicted to my car. Returning to my car much later, what a surprise to find a note by Fiona explaining the damage. The damage is secondary to the confirmation that we have citizens with so much aloha for a stranger. Mahalo also to police officer V. Solis in assisting me in filing a report. — Stephanie
Write to "Kokua Line" at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Honolulu 96813; call 529-4773; fax 529-4750; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
