Kalaupapa National Historical Park Structural Fire Program establishes new partnership for NPS firefighting refresher course at Army’s Pōhakuloa Training Area

The firefighters at Kalaupapa National Historical Park attended three days of refresher training at Pōhakuloa Training Area in Hawai’i.

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After a two-year pause on in-person training due to the coronavirus pandemic, firefighters at Kalaupapa National Historical Park needed to complete a structural fire refresher course to maintain their qualifications and skills as structural firefighting professionals. Scheduled refresher classes on the mainland were not available until the fall and hosting a course at the park was challenging due to the park’s remote location and lack of specialized training equipment. In a new partnership, the park and the NPS Branch of Structural Fire in Boise, Idaho joined forces with the U.S. Army to teach and host a three-day refresher course at the Pōhakuloa Training Area (PTA) on the Big Island in July 2022.

As a remote park, the first line of defense for protecting the structures and the surrounding area is having a robust fire prevention program. The second is the structural fire engine company made up of staff on collateral duty and a volunteer team of firefighters. They are charged with the protection of eight historic buildings, 277 State of Hawai’i buildings, 101 housing units, 59,000 annual visitors, and 10 Hansen’s disease settlement patients.

The members of the team became certified as NPS Pro Board firefighters who maintain a fire station and response engine for fire suppression efforts. Part of maintaining this service is ensuring all firefighting requirements are met, including annual proficiency training and biennial refreshers with a day of live fire training. In the past, Kalaupapa firefighters traveled to the mainland to accomplish this training; in July 2022, a better training option became available.

One exercise required firefighters to successfully navigate an entanglement box where in a controlled environment they worked through getting out of an entanglement and learning to control breathing to solve problems.

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Through networking, NPS learned that the Army’s PTA had all the facilities needed for structural fire refresher, and were already heavily involved in training state and county recruit classes. The NPS Structural Fire Branch reached out to Dennis Nardo, the lead for PTA’s training division, who agreed to host the park’s firefighters at a July 12-14, 2022 training.

Over the course of the three days of training, in addition to focusing on the safety and operational training needs, the students and instructors created networks for future information sharing. On the safety side, firefighters discussed cancer awareness and mitigation, inspected protective gear and equipment, and discussed driving safety.

Operationally, they gained a lot of valuable experience. The participants navigated through an entanglement box, completed a wall breeching exercise where firefighters learned to squeeze through openings as small as 14.5 inches, conducted a search and rescue drill through a multi-room facility with obstacles, completed live fire training, and more. The crew learned to place ladders, completed a ropes and knots class, and used vehicle extrication tools for rescue.

One of the live fire exercises focused on an exterior fire attack, hitting the fire from the outside of the building to create steam to cool the fire, while removing oxygen to allow a transition to interior attack to carry out victim rescues and extinguish the blaze.

Image courtesy of Dennis Nardo,

Lester Delos-Reyes, structural fire coordinator for the park noted, “It was a great experience to work with Department of Defense firefighters. We did a lot in three days and working with local agencies, especially in the islands, will benefit both agencies by building and bonding our relationship.”

The crew learned to use vehicle extrication spreaders, cutters, and rams allowing them to stabilize the car, remove the roof and windshield, and lift or roll the dashboard, which would create more room to untangle a victim’s lower body to allow for extrication and transfer to more advanced care.

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The value of the refresher training at PTA was priceless. PTA Training Division lead Dennis Nardo, shared, “The interagency and joint training was the first time that the National Park Service from Kalaupapa travelled to the Island of Hawai’i to train with our brothers at the Pōhakuloa Training Area. The rigorous three-day training consisted of intense HOT (Hands On Training) and portions of lecture in and out of the classroom. I would like to borrow a quote that has hit home with me as I walk into my fire station right before the start of my shift. ‘The difference between training and education is this: we train to know how to do something and educate to know why it works. - Art Stoike’.”

The NPS Structural Fire Program team is grateful for the new partnership between PTA and Kalaupapa National Historical Park, and looks forward to future sharing of mutual knowledge and experiences that will continue to grow as a result of this effort.