HONOLULU (KHON2) — The Honolulu Fire Department says its new helicopter has been pretty busy so far in its two months in operation. Despite the cost to fly, HFD says it will respond to any and all calls for help.
It’s a day of training for the Honolulu Fire Department’s Search and Rescue teams. For one, to always be ready for any type of emergency. And two, because they want to get more firefighters up to speed on their new rescue tool – this Bell 429 helicopter.
“Training more guys on the helicopter so that we can get more people up in the mountains and more people that are ready to help with the rescue,” said Capt. Adrian Carvalho, HFD Search and Rescue.
“It’s very exciting, it’s very fun,” said Pilot Zachary Potter, HRD Search and Rescue. “We definitely feel a great sense of responsibility and pride of helping the people of Oahu and keeping everyone safe.”
HFD got the helicopter last October for $10.6 million. The department says it is an upgrade to its other choppers – bigger body, dual engines, and a winch, which allows firefighters to bring people into the helicopter without landing instead of having them dangling below.
“For me, the number one thing is safety not only for our personnel, our pilots, our hoist operators, or rescue men, but also for the public,” said Potter.
HFD says since the Bell 429 has been in operation in July, it’s been called out 69 times for rescue operations, and helped 30 people so far. Cost to fly $2700 per hour. Despite that, the fire department says it will never seek reimbursement for anyone who calls for help, no matter the reason.
“We’re not making that determination as if they should or shouldn’t have called,” said Capt. Jaimie Song. “We just respond to emergencies and then from there we make risk assessments on if it’s a hiker, are we gonna walk the person out, are we gonna carry the person out, or we’re gonna fly them out. And we’re constantly doing a risk-benefit analysis.”
But the department does want people to know as much as they can beforehand, so you can be prepared both mentally and physically.
“Maybe from an actual site that has good information regarding how long it is, how far you’re gonna go actually, maybe even giving you a route you should take,” said Carvalho. “Lotta times people get lost just because they don’t know where they’re going.”
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“We want people to enjoy the outdoors. We want people to be outside,” said Song. “Hawaii is beautiful, but just to enjoy the outdoor safely.”