Latest / The One Oʻahu Podcast with Mayor Rick Blangiardi / HESD Director Jim Ireland on firework-related calls, traffic fatalities, and a bump in flu cases

Transcript

HESD Director Jim Ireland on firework-related calls, traffic fatalities, and a bump in flu cases · The One Oʻahu Podcast with Mayor Rick Blangiardi

0:15
Happy New Year and welcome to the One Oahu podcast.
0:18
I'm your host, Brandi Higa, and today is Thursday, January 8th, 2026.
0:22
We're joined this week by Doctor James Ireland,
0:25
director for the Honolulu Emergency Services Department.
0:28
First of all, Doctor Ireland, happy new year.
0:30
Happy new year.
0:31
What was new year?
0:32
I guess new Year's Eve going into the new year like for you and this department?
0:37
You know, it was busy like it always is.
0:39
But it was.
0:40
I think we used the words, below average as far as,
0:44
critical injuries from fireworks.
0:45
So we're happy about that.
0:47
We did still have some firework injuries, but if I look back, like the previous
0:51
5 or 6 years, it was less than the previous years,
0:55
and it was certainly less obviously than last year.
0:57
Or we had the big tragedy. Right.
0:59
But we still did have some injuries.
1:00
We believe, all of them from illegal fireworks.
1:04
So, you know, not zero, but definitely less than years past.
1:08
And so can you share a little bit about what you saw?
1:10
What kind of calls did we receive this year?
1:13
Well, first of all, like everybody else, I didn't see a lot of firework activity
1:18
in the days leading up to New Year's, and we didn't have any injuries,
1:22
probably at least in the months leading up to New Year's.
1:25
No ambulance calls for firework related injuries.
1:27
So that in of itself was unique.
1:29
I can also report now that, after New Year's,
1:33
we have not had, any significant firework injuries.
1:37
So that's good because years past, you know, a year or two ago,
1:41
I think we had somebody lose their hand a day or two after New Year's Eve.
1:44
So the firework activity was was way down.
1:46
I think anybody who drove around and just looked.
1:49
Noticed that really there wasn't any leading up to New Year's
1:53
and even New Year's Eve until about 1130 or 1140.
1:57
We didn't see as much as we traditionally see across.
2:00
Oahu!
2:00
So that's definitely less use and definitely less impact for us.
2:04
But what we did see is we saw,
2:07
at least,
2:09
three people impacted by aerial fireworks, what appeared to be aerial fireworks.
2:14
One person in, in, the Waipio area was hit in the head.
2:18
We had someone in the windward side who was hit, I believe, also in the head
2:21
with an aerial.
2:22
And then someone on the Waianae coast who was hit also with an aerial.
2:27
We had another incident in the windward side where a where
2:30
a child, a pediatric patient, was burned by an exploding.
2:34
What we think is an exploding aerial that exploded near her.
2:38
So that was, for injuries.
2:40
And then we transported two patients from an incident in Kaneohe.
2:44
There were actually three patients hurt, but only two patients, were transported
2:48
to the hospital from some type of exploding firework.
2:53
We think probably an illegal firework. It was.
2:55
It was unclear.
2:57
None of the
2:58
6 or 7 that we saw were critical.
3:01
And obviously we didn't have any deaths on Oahu.
3:03
So again, compared to years past.
3:06
Much better. Not zero.
3:09
Tragically, New Year's Day, we did have a fatal car accident.
3:12
And I think in the days after New Year's, we had, a few other people hit by car,
3:17
some other fatal pedestrian incidents. But,
3:21
you know, again, overall, less firework calls.
3:24
Yeah.
3:24
But going back to those firework calls, what does a burn injury or
3:28
I guess the recovery from
3:29
that look like timeline wise, just, you know, for those who aren't familiar.
3:33
Sure. And I think,
3:35
most people have had some degree of a burn.
3:38
A small burn, right.
3:39
And burns are classified into first, second and third degree.
3:43
First being kind of red and skinned, second being a little deeper,
3:47
maybe get some blisters, more pain, and then third degree is what they call
3:51
full thickness burn, which is burning all the skin.
3:55
And the other way burns are classified is the percentage of your body
3:59
that's burned.
4:00
So if you burn, like if you touch a hot stove,
4:04
and what probably a lot of people have done that.
4:06
You get a very small burn less than 1% of your body surface area
4:12
and, probably a second degree burn.
4:16
And those people recover from maybe even without doing anything,
4:19
maybe some antibiotic creams or what have you.
4:23
But when you start talking about 10% of the body surface area,
4:27
50% of the body surface area, and second and third degree burns,
4:31
those require oftentimes prolonged
4:34
hospitalization, specialty care.
4:37
And in Straub is has our burn unit here on Oahu for our state
4:41
specialized nursing specialized physicians and surgeons
4:46
who have to do repeated surgeries to breed the charred tissue.
4:50
So it's a really long recovery.
4:54
And I believe some of the people who were burned in the incident
4:58
from last year or a year ago were in the hospital and or rehab,
5:02
maybe up to six months after the after the, after the injury.
5:06
So it can be a long and painful process to recover from a burn.
5:12
And then there's also scars.
5:15
Yeah.
5:15
So like even, you know, like you said this year, less volume of calls, you know,
5:19
not non-fatal but injuries like that are they.
5:23
I mean, they're stuck with those scars forever.
5:25
Correct, correct.
5:27
And the other thing too is because fireworks
5:31
can cause burn injuries, but also, what we call, traumatic
5:36
penetrating trauma, where an explosion and particles penetrate the body.
5:41
It's almost like getting hit with maybe, like, shrapnel or or other debris.
5:45
And so some of the patients had fractures, and other injuries that require surgery,
5:50
probably of the six, probably least half of them.
5:54
And I had to go to the operating room that night to get either debridement
5:58
or fractures fixed.
6:00
And so I think, I don't know if all six were hospitalized, but I know some were,
6:05
and so it's quite serious, even if nobody was critical or died.
6:09
And then you did mention the fatal that we had on New Year's Eve,
6:13
and then the days after even more traffic deaths.
6:17
And this was just days after you joined other first responders and the mayor
6:21
or in the mayor's office to urge people, you know, to just use caution,
6:24
not just with fireworks, but when it comes to drinking,
6:26
when it comes to speeding, when it comes to getting behind the wheel
6:28
and all this just after that press conference.
6:30
How frustrating is that?
6:31
Well, the thing is, is, you know, last year I think it's been
6:34
well publicized that we had a record number of traffic fatalities.
6:38
And by traffic fatalities, we mean people hit by cars, pedestrians, car accidents,
6:44
people getting into accidents on bikes, e-bikes, motorcycles, mopeds.
6:48
So it's all the spectrum of transportation related injuries that we had.
6:52
We had an unfortunate, a terrible or it's a terrible record.
6:55
It's not a record to be proud of.
6:57
And so we thought, okay, how can we get a reset?
7:00
We know there's a lot of celebrating New Year's Eve drinking
7:03
and how do we get a reset on that.
7:04
And, I believe New Year's Eve, we didn't have any fatalities,
7:08
but New Year's Day, there was a traffic accident.
7:10
And since New Year's Day, there's been now a few other, traffic incidents.
7:14
A pedestrian and and other people have lost their lives. So
7:18
it's not so much that it's frustrating.
7:20
It's just that it's just,
7:21
everyone who is impacted and killed in these types of accidents
7:26
has friends, has a family, has livelihood, that there's a ripple effect.
7:31
And it's very it's just tragic.
7:32
And so, so it's just sad for me to, to, to see,
7:38
people lose their lives prematurely.
7:40
And so I think as we move into 2026, you know, 2025 started out
7:44
pretty rough for us with the,
7:47
the big tragedy in Ali Manu,
7:49
the firefighter who lost his life in the fire in a young street.
7:54
And so we really a lot of us in EMS wanted to get 25 behind us.
7:57
26 new year.
7:59
Let's have a great year.
8:00
And so to start out, you know, with the with the low firework injuries,
8:03
even though there were some was like, yeah, it felt good.
8:06
It felt good that, you know, people had listened to the mayor
8:08
and listened to the,
8:09
the police and the sheriffs and like, okay, let's celebrate
8:12
a little more responsibly.
8:13
But then now to have a few traffic deaths already
8:15
this early in the year, we really need to look at,
8:19
what we can change with respect to people's
8:22
behavior law enforcement,
8:25
design, safety design, you know, do do and I'm not saying,
8:29
you know, I'm not an engineer, so I'm not advocating for any one answer,
8:32
but do we need, traffic barriers, to prevent head on collisions?
8:37
Do we need more speed humps? Do we need,
8:40
crosswalks with the yellow flashing lights?
8:42
And again,
8:43
there's people who make a career out of studying these things and can know
8:48
and do know what helps and what doesn't with respect to traffic safety.
8:51
And so those folks need to,
8:53
I think, get more engaged with us in our own department.
8:57
You know, I've already talked to John.
8:58
No, no, no, not the deputy director of transportation.
9:01
And just saying anything we can look at to make
9:05
roads safer, pedestrian safety,
9:09
prioritized.
9:10
We should look at. So.
9:11
Yeah.
9:12
And I know, you know, sometimes people listen to these numbers and,
9:16
you know, our warnings, and they kind of tune out
9:19
because they think, well,
9:19
I don't speed, I don't drive recklessly, and I definitely don't drink and drive.
9:23
But what have you seen?
9:24
You know, especially last year
9:25
in terms of inattentiveness, harm from other drivers.
9:29
And then, of course, you know, those e-bikes and e-scooters
9:32
and things like that.
9:33
And to those people who you just mentioned,
9:35
I appreciate that and I appreciate their
9:38
following the law cautiousness,
9:40
with approach, you know, to to how they operate a vehicle.
9:44
So, so a couple things.
9:45
One is the other issue
9:46
that we've seen just in the last week is we had a lot of rain.
9:50
You can't and generally shouldn't go the normal speed.
9:53
You go on a dry, clear road in the rain and people hydroplane.
9:57
They slide off the road.
9:59
They can slide off the road into other people or other cars.
10:02
We the other night had some pedestrians hit on the freeway.
10:05
So, so in the in the weather, people need to adjust their, their speed.
10:09
But the other big concern is I'm just seeing a lot of injuries
10:13
in 2025 on mopeds.
10:16
And we don't have a helmet law in Hawaii that contributes to the
10:20
degree of disability and death.
10:22
People having head injuries on mopeds. But,
10:26
I mean, for one thing, mopeds are an inexpensive way to get around.
10:29
You know, when I went to U-H, I lived in Hawaii.
10:30
Kai, I had a moped. Yeah.
10:33
I don't think I wore a helmet, you know?
10:35
You know, I shouldn't wear a helmet, but I didn't wear a helmet, I don't think,
10:39
but it was a great way to get to school.
10:41
I also use the bus.
10:42
I'm a big fan of the bus, and I used to have all the numbers memorized.
10:45
But no, peds is a great way to get around,
10:48
but we're seeing more and more moped injuries and people killed on mopeds.
10:53
I know e-bikes grabbed a lot of the headlines
10:55
because they were new and a lot of young people, so it was really tragic.
10:58
But I'm really I really want to see and think about how we can make moped
11:02
riders, safer and protect them. Yeah.
11:06
You know, Doctor Ryan, there was an article in the paper
11:08
the other week drawing attention to the increase in flu related 911 calls.
11:13
And your visit.
11:15
What are we see here on Oahu? What's our current situation?
11:17
So I have good news and bad news on the flu.
11:19
I'll start out with the good news.
11:21
The good news is this flu strain that's going around.
11:25
I don't think it's the one covered in the vaccine.
11:28
The vaccines are,
11:29
you know, made the year before and they try to cover 3 or 4 strains.
11:33
But a lot of times there's cross protective.
11:36
Is that a word. I'm not sure.
11:37
But there's you can get cross protected
11:39
meaning if you get vaccinated against one strain but you get a different strain,
11:43
you may not be fully protected, but you are maybe partially protected.
11:47
And I think that's what we're seeing. Okay.
11:49
And what what I mean by the good news is we're not seeing our ICUs
11:52
across the Wahoo filled up with flu patients.
11:55
We don't hear about lots of people dying of the flu.
11:58
People die of the flu every year.
12:00
But we're not just hearing about that.
12:03
We are hearing about now. Here's the bad news.
12:05
We are hearing about a lot of cases of flu.
12:08
Flu is spreading. It's all over.
12:10
Wahoo! It's all over different parts of the mainland.
12:12
It's increasing our doctors visits.
12:14
It's increasing our numbers.
12:16
911 calls for fever.
12:18
Chills don't feel well.
12:21
Yeah, it is increasing the E.R.
12:22
visits, but it seems like people are getting sick, but not super sick.
12:27
ICU level sick.
12:28
And I'm not saying there's not no one in the ICUs with flu or no one's
12:32
passed away from flu, but we're just not seeing
12:34
overwhelming numbers of people dying from the flu right now.
12:38
You should still get a vaccine.
12:40
I was vaccinated, it gives cross protect tivity.
12:43
It's not a word.
12:44
You know, I'm going to.
12:45
Start using. It. Yeah. So, strategically. So
12:50
get vaccinated.
12:51
If you're somebody who has, strong
12:54
objection to vaccines and, you know,
12:57
I didn't really appreciate how many or what segment of our population
13:01
didn't really want vaccines or didn't like vaccines until we had Covid.
13:04
And there was this kind of us versus them a little bit.
13:08
But if you don't want a vaccine, if you don't want to get a flu vaccine,
13:12
then wearing a mask and hand hygiene is,
13:16
a decent protection.
13:17
It's not maybe as good.
13:19
It's a different type of protection, but a mask does offer a lot of protection,
13:23
especially what we call a fit tested N95 mask.
13:26
I wore that for the first few years of Covid.
13:29
I wasn't at the city then.
13:31
I was taking care of Covid patients in the hospital, and I never got Covid,
13:35
wearing that mask and hygiene.
13:38
Hand hygiene.
13:39
And so, so my recommendation for people with the flu is get a vaccine
13:43
if you haven't already.
13:44
But if you don't, you don't want to get the flu, wear a mask.
13:48
Yeah, but tailing on that,
13:51
it was announced just this week, actually, that the US Department
13:54
of Health and Human Services will endorse fewer vaccines for children.
13:58
So that narrows our recommendations for things like RSV, hepatitis
14:01
and B, among others.
14:02
What's your advice for parents?
14:03
I guess trying to navigate this as they make that announcement.
14:07
You know, I think everybody should have
14:10
as good a relationship as you can with your primary care provider.
14:13
So for parents, it's with your child's pediatrician.
14:17
Pediatricians are physicians.
14:19
They go through a three year medical residency program
14:22
specifically to train them how to take care of kids,
14:25
pediatric patients, young children, children.
14:28
And, we have one here in Hawaii at Kapiolani.
14:31
It's quite good.
14:32
And so talk to your pediatrician
14:34
and the American Academy of Pediatrics and these different,
14:38
trade organizations that represent professional physician organizations.
14:42
They make their own recommendations.
14:43
And those are generally,
14:46
recommendations based on what pediatricians think and what they see.
14:49
And so I'd say talk to your pediatrician,
14:52
tell them your concerns if
14:54
you have them and, and figure it out between you and your pediatrician.
14:59
I think that, takes,
15:02
a lot of the extra stuff out of it as far as, like, social media
15:06
and what people are saying and government recommendations
15:09
that we may or may not agree with, have that personal relationship.
15:12
Talk to your pediatrician.
15:14
And for adults,
15:15
talk to your primary care provider, whether it's an internal medicine
15:18
physician, a family physician, a nurse practitioner, a PA, talk to them
15:22
because those groups also have their own recommendations for
15:26
what vaccines are recommended for adults, whether it's, the shingles vaccine
15:30
or the pneumonia vaccine, the number of acts, etc..
15:34
So talk to your health care provider.
15:36
We talked about the calls, you know, year to year on New Year's Eve.
15:40
But when it comes to 2025, what did our 911 call
15:44
volume look like compared to maybe the years the year passed?
15:47
Did we is higher or was it lower?
15:49
It was higher.
15:50
Yeah.
15:50
So what we're seeing so during Covid it's
15:53
there was some anomalies because people were staying home.
15:56
There were no tourists here.
15:58
So during Covid we actually saw call volume dip.
16:00
It was an anomaly.
16:02
People weren't. Going out and.
16:03
Going out and doing things that people do that bring us business into a mess.
16:08
So and we don't want your business.
16:09
That's our line. We don't want your business.
16:11
But we know medical things happen.
16:13
We know people get hurt and we respond.
16:15
The paramedics respond,
16:18
but call volume is going up
16:19
and it's going up around 8 to 10% per year.
16:24
For a few reasons.
16:25
One is population is getting older, two, visitors are back and visitor
16:31
counts are increasing and three people
16:34
are calling for things maybe that they didn't call for in years past.
16:38
Minor emergency.
16:39
So 20 years ago, 30 years ago, when I started in EMS,
16:42
a lot of people wouldn't call for the flu or a cold.
16:45
They call for that now, we recommend they don't.
16:48
We recommend they just go to urgent care.
16:50
But they do call and we do respond.
16:52
So the call volume is going up.
16:53
And that's why, I've advocated with the mayor and he's
16:56
been very supportive and city council been very supportive of of us, adding
17:01
ambulances to meet the demand of the increased calls.
17:04
So, the other day, a few days ago, I think we had over
17:09
400 911 calls.
17:12
Maybe it was on the fourth.
17:15
Average for us is 303 15.
17:18
So to break 400 for that day anyway, it was a greater than 25% increase.
17:23
So we see these spikes.
17:24
So so to answer your question in one word it's increasing.
17:29
But I know that we also, some good news.
17:31
We also welcomed a new graduating class of EMTs and dispatchers.
17:35
We did.
17:35
So what do your numbers look like as we go into 2026?
17:38
And is it where you want it to be?
17:41
Well, our vacancy count is very low, but we're hoping to open up
17:44
for ambulances in 2026 for new 12 hour ambulance stations.
17:48
So we need to grow more. So.
17:51
So for instance, the other day we had every single ambulance open.
17:55
We opened up an extra one.
17:57
We didn't have a single, as far as I know, a single person on overtime,
18:00
at least in the field.
18:01
Unheard of.
18:02
Yeah, means everybody's here, but he's working healthy.
18:05
Not a lot of vacations. But again,
18:08
with growth and we adding in more ambulances, we need to hire more people.
18:11
So EMT Academy graduated.
18:14
That was huge.
18:15
We have 16 EMTs right now in paramedic school at KCC.
18:21
They'll be done in about June or July.
18:23
That's the biggest class we've had probably in ten years.
18:26
16 people very proud of that.
18:28
We are starting a new partnership
18:30
for an EMT academy for the Wine Coast Comprehensive Health Center.
18:34
We expect that to launch in early 2026.
18:37
We have our own regular EMS Academy,
18:40
slated to begin in July of 2026 with another 20 EMTs.
18:46
And on top of all of that, we have eight people right now
18:49
in new hire evaluation, five EMTs that came from KCC, three paramedics.
18:55
And then on top of all that we just hired and will be starting
18:59
in the next few weeks, ten EMTs that I believe most graduated from KCC.
19:05
So that's a lot of numbers.
19:07
But in 2026, we will probably have hired somewhere
19:12
around 60 to 70 new field personnel,
19:17
mostly EMTs, some paramedics.
19:20
So the department of about 250 people, another 70.
19:23
That's a big boost.
19:25
It will allow us to open these new ambulances.
19:28
And where we're looking at is kind of key
19:31
to help East Oahu in town.
19:34
Colina to help make a kilo.
19:37
The Colina area, Honolulu and west and,
19:40
into Waianae and Makaha.
19:43
Mana Willey to help.
19:45
We only have three ambulances on the windward side Kailua, Waimanalo
19:48
and Kaneohe.
19:48
So Mona Willey will be key to help in that area.
19:52
And then Waikanae, which is out by Kualoa Ranch.
19:55
You know, we have the Kaneohe Ambulance and we don't have another ambulance
19:59
until Kahuku.
20:01
So responding to that area.
20:03
That's a big gap. Yeah.
20:04
And there's a few reasons that it's important
20:07
to get an ambulance in that area.
20:09
One is it just takes too long for Kahuku
20:12
or Kaneohe to get into the Kualoa ranch area.
20:16
It's 20 to 30 minutes.
20:18
The other reason is, if Kuku goes out on a call,
20:21
Waialua is the next closest or Kaneohe that's really far.
20:24
And those
20:26
ambulances up in the North shore, if they get a really serious patient,
20:29
they can't go.
20:30
They won't go to Kahuku Hospital because it's a smaller hospital.
20:33
They'll come all the way to Queens or all the way to Castle or to Wahiawa.
20:35
General. Or the new Queen's Wahiawa.
20:38
So it's really important we get an ambulance mechanic.
20:40
The other thing is when there's a vehicle accident
20:43
out there in that area, which is which is rare, which is good,
20:46
but if it's 3 or 4 patients, that's a head on Kahuku.
20:50
It or Kaneohe, it's not enough ambulances.
20:53
And so we need the extra rigs out there.
20:55
The other thing we see sometimes is if there's an OSHA emergency,
21:00
the lifeguards get 2 or 3 people in trouble,
21:03
sometimes get washed off the beach with a big wave.
21:06
So having an extra ambulance, even even the way Connie is not on the North Shore,
21:11
they can get up there faster than Kaneohe can.
21:14
And that's why in our strategic plan, which we're releasing in the next week
21:17
or two, for the next five years, we actually have pupu care
21:22
in our plans to get an ambulance there within the next five years,
21:26
hopefully sooner than five years, because for the same reason, ocean emergencies.
21:31
North Shore vehicle accidents, having that extra ambulance
21:34
between Waialua and Kahuku is very important to us.
21:39
And so what's
21:39
your message for those maybe interested in joining the department?
21:43
Because you mentioned a lot of folks that have graduated from KCC,
21:45
do you have to you know, what kind of schooling do you need?
21:48
You need to be good at something like biology,
21:49
or if you just have interest, you know, helping people,
21:52
how can I how can I join the department?
21:54
So I got a few answers to that, a few pathways and then and then a story.
21:59
Okay. I always have a story.
22:01
First of all, call KCC,
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get to their website, get to their EMT program and learn about it.
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There are some prerequisites, so you have to take a few classes before
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you can apply to that program.
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I went through that program.
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It's a great program and they will give you everything
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you need to get a state license, and you can work for us.
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You can work for the private ambulance, American Medical response
22:23
A lot of ERS will hire you.
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So you don't just have to come to the city.
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Although we'd like you to all come to the city.
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That's KCC, our own academy.
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We post for that usually every September around there.
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We interview in December.
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So we just did the interviews and they start in July.
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Right now that's just once a year.
22:44
So if you want to come to our own academy, we your paid your full time.
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You get all your medical and dental
22:50
while you're a student and then you have a job when you're done.
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But if you want to come to our academy in 2027,
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the application is going to be probably around September of of 2026.
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So you, you know, we just for folks who are interested, you just missed
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that cycle.
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The other thing is it looks like we may be partnering
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with Wyandotte Comprehensive Health Center in the future to do classes there.
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And so people can contact Wyandotte Coast Comprehensive Health Center
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to find out about their program.
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It's their program, but they're partnering with us to do that program.
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And we felt that that fills a big need for Oahu
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because if you're going to join the city's program,
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you have to drive down to the airport area to get down to us here for our program.
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You're in the KCC program.
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You have to get down to Kaimuki.
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So we're hoping that having this opportunity on the West Side
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will allow students who may be live in
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Mocha Kilo, obviously, and or Makaha,
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a different commute, closer commute to home to get to that program.
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And if that's a success, then I think realistically we may look at the future
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of maybe partnering with somebody to have a class, perhaps in Waianae, maybe
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on the North Shore, maybe on the windward side, maybe even every other year.
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For those who maybe want to do M.S.
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but want to be in their own community to get trained.
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So this is all new but very exciting.
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Now the story.
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So any EMS?
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It's busy.
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We're on the road, and,
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we eat out a lot, and we don't bring our lunch
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to work a lot, and then that is good and bad,
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because sometimes it's not the healthiest choices.
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And, and, you know, we're trying to have a healthier,
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fitter, department, you know, me included.
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And so I don't recommend eating out every meal,
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plate, lunch, fast food, what have you, you know, once in a while it's great.
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But anyway, a lot of times we go to the same place, these,
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you know, famous local eateries and the people working
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there would say to us, how do I how do I get into this?
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It looks, you know, tell me about it.
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And so we've actually done a not a lot of recruitment, but recruiting
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from places where you get food because we interact with those folks.
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And I know a person who went into EMS, he became a fire chief.
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And he has he got into this because he worked at a food place,
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that he met people in EMS, the kind of people that get into EMS,
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are people who love helping people.
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Got to be a, you know, have to be, but it helps to be a person
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who likes to be around people, who wants to be part of a team.
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Every day is different.
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It can be very exciting, but it can also be very challenging.
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It can be very stressful.
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So people have to be able to handle that part of it.
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But you're definitely not in an office.
25:40
You're definitely not 9 to 5. And that's the other thing.
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When you're new anyway, you have to be willing to work
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on the weekends, on the holidays, at night, as you get older.
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In our department, we let people pick their station and their shift.
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And so as you get what we call seniority, you can kind of find your niche
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and where you want to work and where you want to be.
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But in the beginning, somebody has to work Christmas, somebody has to work nights.
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So people have to be willing to do that.
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But I would say what's most important is
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you like working with people, you care about people. And,
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you want to be in a position where you can help people.
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And I even tell the new people in our own team, and we all know this.
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You've been doing this a while is unfortunately, you can't save everyone.
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And that's hard when you know someone's not going to make it.
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But at the same time, you do the best you can and then you can comfort
26:33
their loved ones or their family
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and make a terrible situation, maybe a tiny bit better.
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And so there's always a role for us, even when we're not able to save people.
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But I'd say that's one of the harder things in the job
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is when you get to a scene and, you know, you do everything and, and the person
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still succumbs to their illness or their injuries, that's tough.
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And so with that
26:56
said, what does peer support look like for EMS?
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I guess I'm not familiar either.
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So a peer meaning someone an equal, someone who knows the job you're doing,
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and peer support is a way to address the mental health
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needs of the people who do this work.
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And we have a great team.
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It's voluntary.
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The people who did it asked to be on it.
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They tend to be people who are extra compassionate, I guess, even more
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so than the regular folks on EMS, they enjoy
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helping our own and,
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they go to some classes too,
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so they can learn some ways to,
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some special skills and dealing with crisis and very sad events.
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And they're on call and we utilize them and they're willing to come
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in, you know, 24 seven
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and we don't use them for every call and every calls a little different.
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But if a call is particularly tragic,
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children as patients
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that maybe don't make it or have very bad injuries,
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if it involves one of our own personnel,
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somebody who works for us
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or somebody we know, somebody, a police officer, a firefighter,
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or if there's a lot of patients or something that's maybe
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extra tragic beyond kind of the
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I don't want to minimize anybody's personal tragedies, their own losses.
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But if it's more than we're used to, our team is used to seeing on a daily basis.
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So the fireworks incident last year was a good example.
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But but peer supports probably activated
28:28
once a week or every other week for something.
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But the best example I can think of as the is the Alemanha firework explosion.
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There were a lot of patients.
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Most of them were critical.
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There was a feeling initially that the teams were overwhelmed
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because there were so many patients. There were fatalities.
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And so that, that was a big, peer support,
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event.
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And we had it brought people together.
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People were allowed to talk and express their feelings.
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We also offer, counseling if people need it.
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And that's very, private and confidential.
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But we have avenues for that as well,
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if people need to talk about it more outside, just the peer support.
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But even after that, all the I knew, the peer support team came and talked
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to me, knocked on the door and right here in this office and said, how are you?
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How are you doing?
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And that's kind of how it starts. How are you doing?
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And you can not talk.
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You can rehash it a little bit, kind of,
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go through the scenario, go through what you did, and they give feedback
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and are very understanding and help you understand your feelings.
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And, and I appreciated them coming to my office in the first reaction
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is, I don't need this, maybe sometimes in some people.
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But, I really appreciated them coming and I did need it.
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And it was helpful to talk about that night and what our team did.
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And it also reinforced for me how well the team did and how well we did.
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And I feel very strongly that we helped and saved everybody we could,
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even though, you know, two people passed away at the scene
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and four passed away in the days and weeks after.
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But but that's what peer supports about,
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and it's
30:08
it's an integral part of our EMS operation
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and nationally mental health is there's a more
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there's a higher focus on the mental health of people in EMS
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so they can go back to work the next day.
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Another just story is, is,
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you know, we have not had a lot of mass shootings in Hawaii, thank God.
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And, but we did have one at the Xerox building.
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I don't even know how long ago that was.
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That was at 20 years ago. Was a long time ago.
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But I know a lot of the EMS providers that went into that building initially.
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And as you may know or remember, I don't know
30:47
if anybody survived anybody that was shot, everybody who was shot passed away.
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And I think of those initial people, most of them left EMS.
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They did not do this job anymore.
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One of them did stay with us.
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In fact, he just retired, a week or so ago.
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So he did stay with his career, but he did leave the field.
31:08
He he joined administration, after after that event, he
31:13
he finished his career in administration.
31:16
And not the saying that he couldn't
31:17
go back to the field, but it was just after the fact.
31:19
It was interesting for me to just look back at that and say, okay,
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this person went, this person went, this person went,
31:25
this person went to the call and wow, none of those people are in EMS anymore.
31:30
So those type of calls sometimes do things to people mentally
31:35
where you just can't do it anymore and, and they find another career.
31:39
And so what peer support does
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and the mental health attention to mental health is to hopefully
31:45
keep people in the career that want to stay in the career
31:48
with just being able to talk through a bad event, know,
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and I'm not an expert in peer support, I appreciate them, I appreciate them.
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What they've done for me personally and what they do for our team.
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But I haven't had the training.
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I haven't gone to the classes, but I know nationally there's a lot more focus on
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taking care of our own people, both physically and mentally.
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And so we're also looking at what kind of wellness programs in general
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we can do for our team, whether it's information on diet,
32:20
exercise, time to exercise,
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how to relieve stress and how what to do.
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You know, when you're not at work to decompress after a hard day.
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You know, when I was in my 20s,
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I worked on our Baker one ambulance, and that's the ambulance based at Queen's.
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It's still there.
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And it has been, it had been the busiest ambulance in the state.
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We've had another unit that's surpassed that now.
32:49
But I worked a 3 to 11 shift.
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I get off at 11 and I would go down to the beach access
32:55
at Kahala, go out, and I would do night snorkeling by myself.
33:00
I don't know how safe that was, either.
33:02
I'd stay inside the reef, but that's what I did.
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And a couple nights a week I go out there and get in the water.
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Nighttime, look at the fish with my flashlight.
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It was a lot of fun. That's what I did.
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So people need that outside of the EMS.
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I probably with anything, to just find a way, do something you enjoy.
33:19
Whether it's by yourself or with family.
33:21
To just
33:22
leave the job at work, even though you can't always do that.
33:26
And then enjoy, your private time, your personal time.
33:30
Yeah. Just sticking with that.
33:32
And you personally, you know, returning the year.
33:34
So do you have any New Year's resolutions?
33:37
Me? Yeah. Are you a resolution guy?
33:39
And, you know, for me personally,
33:43
you know, I, I want to exercise more.
33:46
You know, I exercise, but I want to put away more time for exercise.
33:51
You know, I did pretty good in 26.
33:54
I was able to lose some weight and a little healthier.
33:57
Fell back a little bit over the holidays, as we all do.
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So want to refocus on that.
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That's kind of the main one, you know,
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have some travel plans with family coming up in the next few months.
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So that's personal for the department.
34:12
You know, I think we've got a really good team in place now.
34:14
We've had some retirements, we're bringing on a lot of new people,
34:17
but the goal is always expand service,
34:21
improve the working environment for the paramedics, EMTs and dispatchers.
34:24
We've got them a good pay raise with an EMS differential.
34:27
That's significant.
34:29
And so just continue that trajectory with EMS,
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because, you know, the mayor has three years left.
34:35
I may retire in three years.
34:37
I never say never, but that's the thought right now.
34:40
So we really, I think with any administrator you want to leave
34:45
the institution.
34:46
The department better off than you found it.
34:50
And I think with the team we have with the hard work everybody's
34:52
doing, and really, I can't thank them all enough.
34:56
I think we're going to get there.
34:57
We have a little more work to do, and we got a little more.
34:59
A few more ambulances we want to add.
35:01
I'm going to be knocking on, Andy Kawano, our budget
35:04
director store, to make sure we get, what we need funding wise.
35:09
But the mayor, our budget team council actually been very supportive.
35:13
So I, I'm not worried, but I know we have a little more work to do.
35:17
And it's a new year.
35:19
Did I see that you have a new member to your family?
35:22
Did you get a puppy? I have a dog.
35:24
How's Colette transitioning?
35:25
Yes, CoA is a Belgian Malinois.
35:28
I've raised, those before.
35:30
I had two Belgian Mal was in the past.
35:32
I had a Dutch shepherd, which is kind of a cousin.
35:35
I have a German shepherd now.
35:38
It's it's interesting.
35:40
I'm going out a few times a night,
35:42
you know, for, for, bathroom breaks with the dog.
35:46
He's about ten weeks. They're a handful.
35:49
But when properly socialized
35:51
and properly trained, I feel like they're the greatest.
35:54
And I know a lot of people to argue with this,
35:55
but I feel personally the one of the greatest dog breeds you can own.
35:59
But you have to keep up with them
36:01
and their energy, and they have a lot of energy.
36:03
They have a drive.
36:05
But but it's fun.
36:07
Echo his name.
36:08
I had a beloved Belgian model,
36:10
and while before named Fonzie, I wanted to name him Fonzie Jr.
36:14
But but we went with Koa, so co is good.
36:17
He's ten weeks, but he.
36:18
Yeah, he's a handful.
36:21
Handful.
36:22
Well, Jim, is there anything that we missed?
36:24
No. I just want to wish everybody a happy New Year.
36:26
I want to thank our team, as always.
36:29
EMTs, paramedics, dispatchers who do all the hard.
36:32
We work in the field, all our support staff, automotive utility
36:36
workers, everybody in billing, payroll, clerical,
36:39
you know, because really, this we have this big team
36:43
that at the end of the day, our job is to answer nine
36:46
and one calls for people who need us.
36:48
And the team does that. Great.
36:50
But all the administrative team helps to make that happen.
36:53
And I just really can't thank them all enough.
36:55
I get letters weekly
36:59
emails, texts from people grateful for what
37:03
they experienced with an ambulance, with them or their family member.
37:06
And I appreciate that feedback
37:08
because then, of course, we immediately pass that on.
37:10
But I get 20 letters of praise
37:14
for every maybe one letter I get of a complaint.
37:18
And to be honest, most of the complaint letters
37:20
I get, which is, not many, has to do with siren noise.
37:23
And we have a plan for that too.
37:27
Maybe.
37:27
And so stay tuned for that.
37:29
But, but really just can't thank the team enough.
37:32
We'll we'll, doctor, and thank you for your time.
37:34
Thank you.
37:35
And next week, we'll be back with Mayor Rick Blangiardi right here
37:37
on the 1 or 2 podcast. Mahalo for listening.
37:40
And until next time. Aloha, Aloha.