#10 — Hawaii Fire Dept — Volcanos & Rescue in Paradise
Aloha! Hawaii is not just paradise but also home to 50 ways to die! But seriously, we have Charlie Spain a retired veteran of over 27 years with Hawaii fire service. Charlie was a Captain of a Specialized Rescue Company for the last 11 years of his service. And he is currently the Hawaii Island Chairman for Hawaii Fire FireFighters Association (HFFA), Local 1463.
Robert Sanchez: All right, we’re back with Firefighter Kingdom. I’m Robert Sanchez, your host, and my co-host Vince Trujillo. Man, Vince is also the producer, the guy who makes everything look good out there on Facebook and all of our podcasts that are out there. Thank you, Vince.
Vince Trujillo: Hey, man. Thanks for having me on, Robert. Happy to be part of it and hear our guest today. It’s going to be awesome.
Robert Sanchez: Yeah, man. We have a real treat in store for us today, and we have Charlie Spain from Hawaii, man. A good friend of mine. What are you up to, Charlie? How you doing, brother?
Charlie Spain: How you doing, Robert? How’s it, Vince? Good to hear from you guys. Thank you for having me on your podcast.
Robert Sanchez: It’s always a pleasure to have you on, man. You know what, Charlie? I think the last time I saw you, Charlie, to be honest with you man, I think you and I were in Seattle on a boat.
Charlie Spain: Yeah, yeah.
Robert Sanchez: We were having a few drinks with all the other Hawaii guys and the 10th district guys, and we had a good time. I think you were cutting rug. Weren’t you dancing and stuff like that?
Charlie Spain: I think that was my son. Yeah, we were having a good time.
Robert Sanchez: Yeah, I think your son was there, man. It was a real good time, man. Shoot, I miss having those times with you, man. Especially now with this COVID stuff, all the traveling.
Charlie Spain: Yeah.
Robert Sanchez: And I know you retired here in December. Congratulations on the retirement. And you’re still the chairman of your local there, and the big island in Hawaii, right? Hawaii Island?
Charlie Spain: Yes, that’s correct. I retired in December, but I’m still involved with being the chairman for our island.
Robert Sanchez: Nice. Tell me a little bit about yourself, man. How did you even start the fire service or fire career? Were you one of those kids that always wanted to be a fire fighter, or did you kind of just trip into the fire service?
Charlie Spain: Well you know our secretary treasurer, Aaron Lenchanko.
Robert Sanchez: Right.
Charlie Spain: Right under Bobby Lee, our president.
Robert Sanchez: Sure.
Charlie Spain: They work out of the Honolulu office. He and I were childhood friends, and his dad was actually a fire captain in the community that we grew up in. It’s on Oahu, called Makaha. We used to go there after school and lift weights with the firemen, training for football. That’s kind of what got me into it. I used to watch them responding to calls and coming back. I saw the brotherhood that they had, and I thought that is something that I would want to be a part of. It really left a big impression on me, and that’s how I got started and being interested in becoming a fireman.
Robert Sanchez: Nice, man. And Charlie, through the years talking to you on trips in LA and Florida, and all those good times we had. I remember talking to you, and now that this podcast starts, I said, “I want to call Charlie, man.” Just because I know we talked about all the volcanoes and stuff you had there in Hawaii. Just, it amazes me, because there’s… even around the world, it’s actually a rare skill to be a firefighter surrounded by active volcanoes. It was just interesting and amazing. And ever since we’ve started this podcast, me and Vince, I always say, “I need to call Charlie. I need to get him on here.”
Robert Sanchez: I think you’re out number 10, our 10th episode. It’s good, we’re just getting started. We’re doing great for all the listeners. First before we start with the volcano stuff, Charlie, tell me a little bit about how the structure of the fire departments work there in Hawaii. So every island has its own fire department or its own county, correct?
Charlie Spain: Yes.
Robert Sanchez: And its own local with IFF? Is that how it works?
Charlie Spain: Yes, each island has their own county fire department, but we’re all under one local. Our local is 1463. Hawaii firefighters association. So we have approximately, maybe close to 2000 members in Oahu in Honolulu. On the big island, we have around 350 members. Maui County has around 320, and I think Kauai’s somewhere around 150. And we also have the state fire fighters, which they’re on all the islands at the airports.
Charlie Spain: Together, our total, we’re close to 3000 members, maybe 3500.
Robert Sanchez: Nice.
Charlie Spain: Somewhere around there.
Robert Sanchez: Right.
Charlie Spain: Yeah.
Robert Sanchez: And Bobby Lee’s the state president over there in Hawaii, right?
Charlie Spain: He’s the president of our local, and he’s also the state president.
Robert Sanchez: Nice, okay. Shoot, tell Bobby I said hi, man. He’s a great dude. I liked him.
Charlie Spain: Yeah, yeah.
Robert Sanchez: Good times with him too, man.
Charlie Spain: He’s been in our union for a long time.
Robert Sanchez: Yeah, he’s great. Great at what he does. I mean with that said, tell me about what type of rescues does Hawaii have? Obviously you’re going to have water rescue, because you’re close to the ocean. You’re going to have maybe rope rescues, right? Because you have a lot of mountainous terrain. You have wild land fires or grass fires… what do you guys call them over there? What other things, specialties-
Charlie Spain: Wild lands, yeah. Wild land.
Robert Sanchez: What other specialties do you guys do there?
Charlie Spain: Okay, so for our island, we call it the big island, because it’s the largest of all the islands. We do have a really diverse terrain around here. We have snow up on the slopes of Mauna Kea, and down to we have desert conditions out in Ka’u district and on the west side of the island. Our island is split into two battalions. We have an east battalion and a west battalion. For me as a rescue captain, I was stationed on the west battalion for about seven years as a rescue captain. I moved home to the east battalion for about five years as a rescue captain. So about 11 years total in the rescue field, and in that we had swift water conditions when we have flooding and heavy rains. We have several rivers on the island that every year gets really bad. We have tourists that get in trouble, sometimes unfortunately it ends in a fatality. That’s one thing we’re always dealing with.
Charlie Spain: We have large brush areas, like branches that sometimes the conditions get real dry and they start brush fires. We don’t have a lot of personnel, and we utilize a lot of helicopter support and bulldozer support to try and contain these wildfires. We also have a federal fire department that can help fight some of the wild land fires, depending if it’s on their land. Because tourist industry is big in Hawaii, we have a lot of tourists that come, and they want to do the outdoor activities. A lot of ocean rescues that go on. Like you said, we’re surrounded by water, so we have a lot of ocean activities. Even with the locals doing fishing or any kind of activities near the ocean, so we deal with that.
Charlie Spain: Here on the big island, we also have very steep cliff areas where people like to go hiking. We end up doing a lot of long line rescue incidents. Those are the more common ones. We have maybe sometimes we’ll deal with confined space. Like you said, there’s an active… we have active volcano activity on this island. There’s a lot of lava tubes that run underground. Sometimes people like to go exploring, and they might get into a situation where they get injured in this confined space. We do those types of rescues also.
Robert Sanchez: That sounds like a big variety. It is unique.
Charlie Spain: Yeah.
Robert Sanchez: We talked about earlier, Charlie… even around the world, I don’t even know how many active volcanoes are around the world, if any. Hawaii’s one of the main ones. How many active volcanoes do you guys have in Hawaii?
Charlie Spain: We had an active volcano, it was Kilauea. It was actively flowing, but when we had that last eruption where it came up to the ground in the subdivisions… during that time, the active volcano, Kilauea, which was going for at least 30 years now, it stopped. The flowing is actually stopped right now, and they know that there’s still activity under the ground. The geologists, they monitor everything. They know that there’s still activity, but right now there’s no active flowing going on. There used to be a lot of what they called vog, the volcanic gases coming out of the crater. It would leave a haze over the island, and it’s been really nice weather now because it doesn’t have that vog. It can cause respiratory discomfort for some people, and it’s been gone for quite a while now, maybe about a year.
Charlie Spain: It’s made for nicer weather. It’s made for less respiratory calls, but I wouldn’t call it inactive yet. We just had an earthquake, maybe about three weeks ago.
Robert Sanchez: Really?
Charlie Spain: Pretty strong shake here. Yeah.
Robert Sanchez: What size was it, or- [crosstalk 00:09:43]
Charlie Spain: I think they said it was about a… I don’t know how they-
Robert Sanchez: They measured it?
Charlie Spain: Or what it was at.
Robert Sanchez: Right.
Charlie Spain: Yeah. But pretty good shake, just a quick one.
Robert Sanchez: That’s crazy. To people in Hawaii or even the firefighters in Hawaii, it’s probably just a normal theme. Just like us running into a car accident or a structure fire, all the lava and stuff flowing, right?
Charlie Spain: Yeah, for this island.
Robert Sanchez: Right.
Charlie Spain: None of the other islands get the earthquakes, but for Kauai island, yeah. It’s pretty common.
Robert Sanchez: And then so-
Charlie Spain: Or it was pretty common.
Robert Sanchez: Right. When the lava is flowing, is there ever a time where it went into… I mean, it did go into a subdivision and stuff, and you’re having to rescue people. Obviously you’re just done, if you even touch the lava. How close can you even get to it safely, or…
Charlie Spain: Well, years ago, this was before I got in the department… They had an active flow that went through a subdivision called Kalapana. You have to evacuate the residents, and those residents were misplaced. They have to move out of the area. This latest one in the Puna district called Leilani, that was the most recent one since Kalapana. It displaced the residents there. They had to move out. We evacuated everyone, but sometimes there’s active flowing… it would start off as a crack in the ground and maybe across the road or through somebody’s yard. Over time, maybe a few hours, that crack would eventually get larger and larger. Then you would see steam starting to come out, and then eventually lava would flow out of these cracks.
Charlie Spain: It was popping up in people’s yards-
Crossing over roads. We did our best to evacuate everyone, but sometimes you got to get people that they just don’t want to leave their residence. Even though you tell them that it’s dangerous, or the gasses that are being emitted can be life threatening. Sometimes they just don’t want to leave, and those were the types of times when it could be dangerous for firefighters. Because when it reached that point of where they had to get out, otherwise they wouldn’t have any type of egress, that’s when it became dangerous. Because now firefighters had to go in there, and take unnecessary risk because now you have potential… See, the lava would kind of, I would call it mini explosions, where molten rock would be thrown out. It could be thrown into the air and travel hundreds of yards, and it could potentially land on the firefighters or land on the helicopter that was trying to go in and extricate someone.
Yeah, it was scary at times, very dangerous at times.
Robert Sanchez: That’s crazy, man. How often do people actually get burned? Tourists probably do foolish things. Do they actually get burnt from the lava? How close can you actually get to it, before you start like, you can’t even stand the heat?
Charlie Spain: You can get pretty close. There’s different types of lava. There’s the really fast flowing lava. It’s really liquid-y. And then there’s a type of lava that’s real rocky and crumbly. It doesn’t move very fast. Depending on which one is in that area at the time, it can let you get close if it’s the slow moving crumbling type.
Robert Sanchez: Right.
Charlie Spain: You can get within 20 feet of it, but you’re going to feel the heat. The fast moving type of lava, you wouldn’t want to get close to that, because it can cover some ground.
Robert Sanchez: Right.
Charlie Spain: We did have a few instances of people getting burned. This was more like… they were having boat tours that would go from the ocean. Because the lava’s flowing down into the ocean.
Robert Sanchez: Right.
Charlie Spain: So the boat tours could get pretty close to film the lava falling into the ocean.
Robert Sanchez: Right.
Charlie Spain: The people want to get close. They want to get the best photos and stuff. I think there was an incident where they got a little too close, or maybe the explosion was a little too great. Somehow that molten rock hit the boat that they were on, and yeah, tourists were injured. They were seriously injury.
Robert Sanchez: Right. Leave it to the tourists, huh?
Charlie Spain: Yeah, I mean it’ll happen. People don’t realize the dangers.
Robert Sanchez: Right.
Charlie Spain: It happens, yeah.
Robert Sanchez: Right. So we wear turnout gear. Some departments call it bunker gear, all of us in the United States. In your part of the states over there in Hawaii, is there special gear that they wear other than our regular turnout gear that we all wear? Or are they just regular turnout gear, if they have to get close to it?
Charlie Spain: We were using just our regular turnout gear. They outfitted for normal operations, you could use a special mask for ventilators for SO2 gas. If you were in a really bad atmosphere, then we’d put on our regular CDAs, the MSAs. The self contained breathing apparatuses. As far as the turnout, if you were hit by a molten rock, it would probably melt right through it.
Robert Sanchez: I’m sure, yeah.
Charlie Spain: Yeah. There’s no protection from the lava itself, if it gone thrown on you.
Robert Sanchez: Right.
Charlie Spain: Yeah.
Robert Sanchez: That’s crazy. What about the toxic gases that come out? I know you said it causes respiratory distress, but is it severely toxic if you inhaled a big amount of it? Are you going to die, or is just a respiratory distress type thing? How toxic is it?
Charlie Spain: It would vary in areas. Everyone was given monitors, and you would use that monitor to monitor the area that you were entering. If it reached a certain level, then it would require you to put on the SEBAs. Everyone was using gas monitors. Some of the challenges that we face is that initially, we didn’t have those things. Because we’re an island, it took time to get some of these monitors in. In the beginning, very risky for the firefighters, not knowing the levels that they were responding to.
Robert Sanchez: Right.
Charlie Spain: Our guys definitely took a lot of risks. Not only for the firefighters, but all first responders. The policemen, the national guardsmen, and all the first responders that came out to help. Everybody in the beginning took a lot of risk, because it took a while to get those things mobilized.
Robert Sanchez: Right.
Charlie Spain: Yeah.
Robert Sanchez: I guess when we take the job, we know we’re taking risks, right?
Charlie Spain: Yeah.
Robert Sanchez: Somebody has to do it. You know what I mean?
Charlie Spain: Right.
Robert Sanchez: That was the thing, the safety concerns. When you go through the academy or you have some rookies, or probationary firefighters, whatever you guys call them down there. Is there a certain SOGs or SOPs or procedures? That you guys say, “Okay, when you’re around the lava, don’t do this or do that.” Any safety things that you guys use or talk about? Or is it kind of just on the job, “Don’t touch it, stay away if you can.”
Charlie Spain: Well, like I said normally, we weren’t dealing with it up front early in my career. It was flowing up at the volcano in the crater, but it didn’t break out into any residential areas until this Leilani incident. That’s when all these protocols started to come up, but it was pretty fluid. It was changing as the event evolved, because you know how it goes. As more dangers present itself, you start to become more aware. It was fluid on the procedures that we would implement, that our department would implement.
Charlie Spain: I think that the response overall was really good. I think it was a collaborative effort. We brought in outside sources when we needed, mostly to help organize the structure. Because it’s such a large incident, and we’re having so many different agencies. We have to stand up the incident command. Dealing with such a large incident, sometimes the structure and the planning, we’re not really used to it. It doesn’t happen that often that it was this large. So we brought in some outside agencies from Maui and Honolulu. They played a really big part in coming over and helping. Towards the end, we even had some mainland assistance with running our incident command.
Robert Sanchez: Good, man. That’s crazy. It’s a huge endeavor, right?
Charlie Spain: Yeah.
Robert Sanchez: I guess you would kind of compare to a large forest fire, right? You have the ICS system.
Charlie Spain: Right.
Robert Sanchez: You have several agencies working together. You have unified command.
Charlie Spain: Unified command, yeah.
Robert Sanchez: It’s just a different type of job, but the command structure is the same compared to like a structure fire, or even like a wild land fire with the forest service of whatever. BLN, something like that.
Charlie Spain: Yeah.
Robert Sanchez: That’s crazy. I just didn’t know it was that big when it was happening. When the lava takes over some land… I mean, these might be some silly questions, but where I’m at, we don’t have volcanoes over here. We do, but they’re not active. So when it takes over some land, is the land totally… can you do anything with it anymore? Can you build on it anymore, or can you take the lava out? Or is it just…
Charlie Spain: It depends. I would say once it hardens, and there’s no active lava in the rock material, then you can probably have it bulldozed and flattened out and reopened. We have a large power plant out there, and they were able to reopen and redo the roads around. Their area got surrounded by lava. There are areas where it’s still giving off higher readings of gases, so I’m not sure all of the residents have returned to their areas. Because even though there’s no active lava flowing, it’s still emitting some of those gases. Maybe not at the high levels of when it was really active, but still noticeable, I would think.
It kind of depends on what area you’re at, and whether you want to go back… if you can go back safely or not.
Robert Sanchez: Right.
Charlie Spain: When it’s hard, yeah, they can end up bulldozing right over it. It depends. Some of those lava fields ended up being 30–40 feet deep. Some is real close to the road, only a few feet, so it all depends.
Robert Sanchez: That’s crazy, so it could take over roads and everything. That’s crazy.
Charlie Spain: Yeah. It ran over roads and everything. It really put a big challenge on the people living in that subdivision. Some of them moved out. They’re not back in there.
Robert Sanchez: Sure. I’m sure it’s just like you have homeowners insurance for floods, or hurricanes, or earthquakes. Whatever the case may be. So it’s the same thing for an eruption with lava. I mean, if your homeowners insurance would cover it, correct?
Charlie Spain: I think some have, but I know there are a few that have difficulty time, getting, recouping their losses. Yeah.
Robert Sanchez: That’s crazy.
Charlie Spain: I think it really depends on the type of insurance you are able to get when you build your house.
Robert Sanchez: Right. I mean is there any other obstacles that we could talk about? That the rest of the United States doesn’t have that Hawaii faces? I mean, you guys have scuba diving teams, right, and all that type of stuff.
Charlie Spain: Yeah.
Robert Sanchez: I’m sure the tourists keep you busy with being in the water constantly and exploring the island.
Charlie Spain: Yep. For our rescue company that is here, the rescue personnel, like we talked about. They’re trained in scuba diving. A lot of them get trained in rope rescue. They go to the CMC classes, become certified, or we may bring an instructor from CMC.
Robert Sanchez: Right.
Charlie Spain: That will certify our guys in rope rescue. We have people that come and certify in swift water training. They come here and certify in a confined space. I mean, the department tries to keep everyone certified and qualified to handle all these different diverse things that our island presents. It’s a challenge keeping everyone certified, because it may last maybe two or three years, and then once it’s done, you try and continue… The retraining can be a challenge.
Robert Sanchez: Right. Yeah, it’s definitely interesting, man. I’m sure you guys are used to seeing all that, but me being a firefighter here in New Mexico, it’s interesting to me. And that’s why I wanted to have you on here. It’s definitely unique. Not a lot of firefighters can say that they worked around lava, and they know about it, and actually had to maybe evacuate some people around the lava and stuff like that. That’s pretty crazy stuff there, for sure.
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You and I were just talking earlier today. What’s going on with the COVID stuff down there, man? It’s not as bad in Hawaii that it is in the rest of the United States, is it? It seems like it’s… Is it picking up down there, or is it kind of…
Charlie Spain: I considered one of the lowest in the nation.
Robert Sanchez: Right.
Charlie Spain: I think it has to do with the fact that we’re pretty isolated.
Robert Sanchez: Right.
Charlie Spain: They’ve really restricted visitation, so if you flew in from the mainland, you would have to do a forced quarantine of 14 days.
Robert Sanchez: Okay.
Charlie Spain: Yeah, I’m thinking they opened it up now and you can travel, but there’s still some rules. Like you have to show that you’ve cleared a test before you can come in and be able to do tourist activity. You have to show that you passed the test. All these rules that they put in place, it’s kept the numbers pretty low, I would say. As compared to the rest of the nation, for sure.
Robert Sanchez: Right. I mean, the kids are over here… I know my kids are supposed to start school here in mid August, but I don’t see it happening. If it just keeps getting worse, I see them delaying it even farther. Personally, which I thinks a good thing, you know? The kids are getting sick, but it’s more of them just taking it home to their elderly, the grandparents and parents. People with underlying conditions, you know what I mean?
What do you think about, is the school system going to start on time down there in Hawaii?
Charlie Spain: I think they’re going to, but if you see an up kick, then I think they may pull it back. I think they’re going to try it out and proceed with caution, and watch how the numbers go. Yeah for sure, if it goes up, I’m sure they’ll pull back and readdress the issue. They’ve put all the things in place that is recommended. Everyone’s got to wear a mask. Everyone’s got to be washing their hands. Everywhere you go on our island at least, pretty much masks required to be in any of the stores, to be in anything like that, you should have your mask on. Or you need to… I would think that it’s going to be kind of played by ear as it goes up, yeah.
Robert Sanchez: So your governor’s doing a pretty good job over there, in your opinion, of kind of-
Charlie Spain: Yeah.
Robert Sanchez: Keeping an eye on it?
Charlie Spain: I think they’re doing the best they can under the circumstances.
Robert Sanchez: That’s good.
Charlie Spain: Yeah.
Robert Sanchez: Yeah. Down here too, it’s a tough… the governors are having to make some tough decisions.
Charlie Spain: Yeah.
Robert Sanchez: It’s not easy making those decisions. It’s like-
Charlie Spain: It’s not.
Robert Sanchez: Putting money over people’s lives.
Charlie Spain: It’s so easy to criticize. Yeah.
Robert Sanchez: Right. And it’s easy for me being the armchair quarterback, thinking we should do this, and do that, and do this. But shoot man, when you’re dealing with COVID-19, you’re an elected official nowadays… you’re literally dealing with people’s lives.
Charlie Spain: Yeah.
Robert Sanchez: It’s not just, “Well, you’re going to get hurt.” It’s definitely, there’s some risks that you’re taking. There’s a price to pay for making the wrong decisions, for sure.
Charlie Spain: Yeah.
Robert Sanchez: It’s definitely a crazy world, man. Never in my life did I might think we’d walk around where everybody’s wearing masks. You know what I mean?
Charlie Spain: Right.
Robert Sanchez: I’m glad I fixed my teeth, but if I didn’t, it’d be a good time not to fix my teeth. I wear my mask all the time, man. Nobody would even know I have crooked teeth.
Charlie Spain: Yeah.
Robert Sanchez: I’m just kidding, man.
Charlie Spain: It’s pretty crazy. I just can’t imagine in the mainland, because of the sizes of the population. It must be pretty crazy where you guys are at. Fortunately, as far as COVID for us, I think the isolation actually helps us.
Robert Sanchez: Right, I think so.
Charlie Spain: Yeah. Like we said, dealing with large incidents like a lava situation, we get hurt because being far away, it takes time for resources to get here.
Robert Sanchez: Sure.
Charlie Spain: Masks, whatever it is. That’s the negative part. But in the COVID and the spreading, maybe that’s more of a benefit, the isolation part. But it did take a while for us to get the necessities, yeah. For a while in the beginning, the shelves got emptied out.
Robert Sanchez: Sure.
Charlie Spain: But it was pretty much the same all over the mainland, right? Toilet paper, hand wash… everybody’s going crazy, right?
Robert Sanchez: Yeah, Clorox. There’s no toilet paper. Yeah. That’s the first time in my lifetime, I think I went and bought toilet paper at a restaurant or something that was trying to sell their stuff. It’s kind of crazy.
Charlie Spain: Yeah.
Robert Sanchez: Yeah, man. This kind of leads me to our community segment. Like you and I talked about, we always talk about firefighter issues. We have our lingo and some of the stuff we talk about, but people of the community, sometimes they have questions they want to ask. I always use my cohost, Vince Trujillo, and my producer, just to ask you questions in our community segment. So we’re going to bring Vince in.
Robert Sanchez: Vince, what you up to brother? Talk to us, man.
Vince Trujillo: Hey, man. I’ve just been sitting here listening to this. This is amazing.
Robert Sanchez: Glad to have you.
Vince Trujillo: Yeah. Thanks for having me back on. I’ve been here the whole time, actually.
Robert Sanchez: They trapped me in my own podcast.
Vince Trujillo: Just like sitting here… and I got to go to Hawaii for the first time. I’ve only been once like two years ago, and now working with Robert and the podcast. And you got to hear about firefighters and how they’re doing stuff on a daily basis, weekly basis, monthly basis. All the stuff y’all have to handle, and now you’re in Hawaii. You’re in the only… I don’t know if Alaska, I don’t think Alaska has any volcanoes, right? You’re the only one in the United States that has responses to volcanoes, correct?
Charlie Spain: I’m not sure, but we could be, yeah. I think in the United States, yeah.
Vince Trujillo: I mean you got Washington-
Robert Sanchez: Active ones.
Vince Trujillo: Yeah, active like constantly, and you guys are dealing with that. We had LA fire department on not too long ago with Adam VanGerpen, and he was just talking… anyone that’s on the water, you guys have water rescue, you have divers. In your case, you also have mountains. I was surprised to find out that Hawaii had a place with snow, like a snow capped mountain there. I didn’t know that.
Charlie Spain: Yeah.
Vince Trujillo: So you’ve basically seen in your like, 28 years, I think that’s what you told me on your bio… that you’ve seen pretty much every type of rescue, right? That you guys do.
Charlie Spain: Yes, yes.
Vince Trujillo: Been exposed to it or know a little bit about it. So you’ve done stuff for… because I know that actually not too long ago, someone died on the mountain with the snow on it. I think they froze or something, or they got trapped out there, and they got dehydration or something. I don’t know what it was, but that was amazing for me to hear that.
Charlie Spain: Yeah. There are times when… because there’s hiking trails up there, and sometimes because of the elevation, you can get disoriented. They wander off the trail, and they want to go see a better sight. And then they can’t find their way back to the trail. Age might be a factor. Definitely people don’t realize you get dehydrated faster, and then once it gets night time and the cold sets in. If you weren’t prepared… During the day, it’s nice and sunny. You go out in shorts and a tshirt and take maybe one bottled water. You’re going to get dehydrated. You’re going to get hypothermia.
Charlie Spain: Yeah, there’s been a few that haven’t made it back on that mountain. That’s definitely one of the things we’ve dealt with. When it’s winter time and there’s snow, people want to sometimes try and snowboard and do those types of activities. It’s a different kind of terrain. Sometimes underneath there, there’s big lava rocks and guys can get injured when they take off on a small hill. They don’t realize that underneath that snow is not a soft ground, but some big lava rocks that they could be banging into. They get injured. It’s kind of like a harder snow, not a real soft cushiony snow, like people who want to go skiing and stuff.
Vince Trujillo: Right.
Charlie Spain: So, yeah.
Vince Trujillo: So you think of Hawaii all the time of like a place you want to visit, and it’s just nothing but fun and sunshine. But actually for us tourists, there’s like so many more ways I can die on your island. Right? I could drown. I can freeze. I can have dehydration. I can get bit by something.
Robert Sanchez: Get burnt by lava.
Vince Trujillo: Burnt by lava. I can suffocate from the smoke. I could get eaten by a shark.
Vince Trujillo: My girlfriend and I, we did this kayak. We kayaked from the river, it was Hanalei or something. Hanalei Bay. We went from the river there into the ocean, and man, I’m kind of freaked out about ocean stuff. I’m on this little kayak, and when you’re out in open ocean… I’ve been in open ocean a couple times. You freak out, because it’s like, deep, man. That’s scary stuff. But you guys respond to everything, just like our firefighters here.
Vince Trujillo: I was surprised to know firefights don’t just respond to fires. You guys are on calls, so you get called for shark attacks, for rescues, for someone got stuck out somewhere, stuck underwater, stuck on the side of the cliff. Are you one of the main responders to all of those different types of rescues?
Charlie Spain: Yes. For our island, and I’m pretty sure for all the jurisdictions, the rescue company responds to all of those incidents. For here on our island, yes. For the lava, our hazmat teams took the lead, because it was considered dangerous atmosphere to be working in. Our hazmat was the lead agency as far as… lead section in our department that oversaw the incident. But for all the other type of rescues, if it involves scuba diving, mountain climbing, repelling, confined space… We might have the in district firefighters respond initially, but then like I said, we would have a specialized team show up. One that’s stationed on the east side, one that’s stationed on the west side. Depending on the location of the incident, that location would respond to assist the in district fire company who will take the initial response. Once the specialized team gets on scene, they would take over the incident.
Vince Trujillo: All right. I got two more questions. I’m going to start asking everyone these. What’s the craziest thing that you’ve seen that had the most elements of danger all in one, when you guys had to respond to something? Was it a diver responding to sharks, and then there was lava flowing into the water? Or what was the combination… the most interesting, crazy, kind of thing that you were ever exposed to?
Charlie Spain: Like I said, I’ve been in close to 28 years, 27 and eight months. Many of those years, when I was beginning, I started off as a rescue man. I used to TA, I used to temporary assign at the rescue station. I eventually became a rescue captain for about 11 years, so I’ve seen a lot.
Charlie Spain: If you’re trying to ask me what was the most scariest incident I’ve ever been on-
Vince Trujillo: Sure.
Charlie Spain: I would have to say it was a flash flooding that happened in the district of Waianae, where there’s a lot of people that like to frequent falls area, waterfall area with a pond. There was a massive flash flood that came through. When the call came in, they said 13 people washed down in the rapids.
Vince Trujillo: Wow.
Charlie Spain: So we responded two rescue companies, and when we got there, they were able… the majority of that group was able to scramble and get to some kind of safety. There were three that were stuck next to a raging waterfall, and they were hanging on for… they were hanging on for their lives.
Vince Trujillo: Like on the side of a cliff, or-
Charlie Spain: On the side of the cliff, on a little ledge.
Vince Trujillo: Wow.
Charlie Spain: And if they lost their footing or if they lost their grip, they probably would have died. There were three of these people hanging on, and we had to do a rope rescue evolution, that was probably several hundred feet long, just to get to them. Because of the access, and our guys, it took a lot of risk effecting that rescue. We were successful without any injuries.
Vince Trujillo: Oh, wow.
Charlie Spain:
They saved those people. We have a foundation that recognizes firefighters that go above and beyond the call of duty. Every year they recognize any incidents where people had to take risks above the normal. All the people involved in that were awarded the award that year. It was a very high risk situation, and a lot of dangerous potential situations could have happened. That was the one that sticks out the most in my mind, but there’s been a lot.
Vince Trujillo:
I have a feeling… Every time I talk to the firefighters in different areas, they’re just always so humble. It’s like, “Come on. Tell me the good stuff.” But you guys see so much stuff, I’m sure that it’s just like any number of things, any number of times.
Charlie Spain: Yeah.
Vince Trujillo: It would freak out most of the public anyways.
Charlie Spain: Oh, yeah. For sure. Yeah.
Vince Trujillo: Robert asked a lot of the questions I wanted to ask on the lava and stuff. He took all the good ones. The lava/volcano stuff… I thought you could get a lot closer, but you said 20 feet, and I was like that’s pretty far off. And if you have that fast moving lava…
So for us tourists, the next time I come around… This is my last question. Just when I’m out there, what can I do to help make your guys’ lives better? Because I’ve been to the Queens Bath, you know that thing. There’s just some rocks out there, there’s not a lot of signs. It does say like, you go out there, you’re taking your own life in your hand.
Charlie Spain: Yeah.
Vince Trujillo: I don’t think everyone… like I was watching some people. They don’t always pay attention to those things. It’s like other parts of the world, like on the mainland here. We’re used to seeing all of these extra signs everywhere. “Don’t be stupid.” Then, “Please, don’t be stupid.” Then you have to have the third sign that says, “Please, please, don’t be stupid.” And people still don’t listen.
Over there, there was just one sign that says, “People die here. Take your life in your hands when you go there.” What can we do to be careful and just cautious? We think it’s a fun land, and it is, it’s gorgeous. But what do you recommend for us kind of stupid tourists?
Charlie Spain: Well, I know when everyone comes, they want to see everything and do everything in such a short time that they have to stay. I certainly understand everybody wanting to do everything, but I would heed any signs in the area. Heed all the warnings. And if you can, try and get together with somebody who has a local knowledge of that area. Prior to coming, let them know what you want to do. Maybe they can pre-trip it and find out if it’s safe, if the weather’s going to be right for doing that activity.
I think those types of things would really help you to have the best experience in the safest way.
Vince Trujillo: All right, I appreciate that. Thanks for everything you do, Charlie. I’ll turn it back over to Robert, but very in to listen to you.
Charlie Spain: Thanks, Vince.
Robert Sanchez: Thank you, Vince. It’s always nice, man, talking to Vince.
Charlie Spain: And Vince, I hope you come back and enjoy Hawaii many more times, because one time is not enough.
Vince Trujillo: I think we got to do a Firefighter Kingdom episode in Hawaii.
Robert Sanchez: Yeah, we might do that, man. Don’t threaten me with a good time. Shoot, man. Your umbrella drinks are no joke there. They’re not light. They’re good.
Me and Charlie aren’t light. We’re having a good time. I’ve had some good times with Charlie. I was just thinking, when Vince was saying there’s all kinds of these ways you can die out there… hypothermia, all kinds of stuff. I was thinking alcohol poisoning too probably, for some of those people, right?
Charlie Spain: Oh, yeah. For sure.
Robert Sanchez: Do you guys have a charitable foundation to help firefighters down there in Hawaii at all?
Charlie Spain: Yeah. Like I said, we have that foundation that they have an event every year. What they can do, is they bid on items. All the money that they raise is directed toward the fire department.
Robert Sanchez: Is there anything that you could plug on this podcast and have the listeners kind of… if they want to donate. Is there any type of charity they can get to? Or you can send it to us later, and we can put it on a link?
Charlie Spain: Yeah, sure. It’s only for our island. I’m not sure what the other islands have, but for our island it’s called the Sayre Foundation.
Robert Sanchez: Okay.
Charlie Spain: They have their event once a year. If you go online, you’ll be able to see. They have a website.
Robert Sanchez: Yeah. If you could send me a link, we’ll put it on our Facebook or something like that or Instagram.
Charlie Spain: Okay.
Robert Sanchez: So all the people can see it. You know, if listeners out there want to donate, we always appreciate it. Charlie, it’s always good hearing from you, man. I’ll be expecting to see you on the next trip or the convention, if it even happens, or anything like that.
Charlie Spain: Yeah.
Robert Sanchez: Tell all the-
Charlie Spain: Things keep getting canceled, but I look forward to seeing you again, Robert.
Robert Sanchez: Tell Bobby, Andy, all those guys. Tell them I said hi, man. Again, thanks again, brother.
Charlie Spain: I will.
Robert Sanchez: You know, me and my family will go down there. We’ll visit with you, we’ll give you a call, and you can show us the good things and things not to do.
Charlie Spain: Right.
Robert Sanchez: Keep us safe.
Charlie Spain: Yeah. Give me a call, Robert, when you get in, man.
Robert Sanchez: All right, Charlie. Nice seeing you, brother. Thanks again, man. All right. Have a good day.
Charlie Spain: Okay. Take care, Rob. Take care. See you. Stay safe.
Robert Sanchez: See you later. And signing off, from Vince and I, listen to your podcast. And what’s-
Vince Trujillo: Yeah, listen to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify. We’re on Stitcher. We’re also on Google Play. You can find us by going to firefighterkingdom.com. Also please visit our Facebook page too, Firefighter Kingdom. Charlie, get on there too and go and follow us and like us. Then we’ll promote this podcast episode. You can find us on all of those. Give us a like, hit us up if you’re somebody who wants to be on. Also we have a sign up sheet on firefighterkingdom.com. Appreciate it all. Thank you, all firefighters, for what you do and all our listeners too.
Robert Sanchez: Good. All right, Charlie. We’re off, man. Thank you. I appreciate it again, brother. Sincerely.
Originally published at firefighterkingdom.com on July 28, 2020.
