Response to deadly Hawaii fire criticized by union leader ADVERTISING Response to deadly Hawaii fire criticized by union leader HONOLULU (AP) — The leader of Hawaii’s firefighter union has criticized the Honolulu Fire Department’s response to the apartment building fire
Response to deadly Hawaii fire criticized by union leader
HONOLULU (AP) — The leader of Hawaii’s firefighter union has criticized the Honolulu Fire Department’s response to the apartment building fire in July that killed three people and left scores of apartments in the 36-story complex uninhabitable.
Hawaii Fire Fighters Association President Bobby Lee said Honolulu Assistant Chief Ronald Rico is tasked with leading fire emergency response operations, but was not at the fire and pulled back a mobile command center that would have helped firefighters as they fought the blaze.
Lee made the comments before the city’s fire commission on Wednesday.
He also criticized Fire Chief Manuel Neves and Deputy Fire Chief Lionel Camara Jr. for not ordering Rico to be on scene.
“When you look at the senior leadership, their job is to lead, we expect them to lead,” Lee said. “And for whatever reason, at this fire, they chose not to. Some chose to show up. And those that did show up chose not to lead.
“It makes absolutely no sense not to be dispatched for the largest high-rise fire the state has ever seen.”
Neves declined to respond to Lee’s complaints, saying he will do so when a report about the fire is released. He said it is typically up to the assistant chief of operations to decide to be present at a scene.
“We’re dying to tell our side as well,” Neves said.
Fire Commissioner Arnold Wong told Lee that the panel should come back and look further into his concerns after the department completes and makes public its final report on the fire.
“It is disturbing to me if this is all true,” Wong said. “But (we) have to hear the other side of it, and we can’t yet go up to that point yet.”
Man accused of disrupting flight found competent for trial
HONOLULU (AP) — A Turkish man accused of inflight behavior that prompted bomb-threat procedures and U.S. military fighter jets to escort an American Airlines plane to Hawaii is mentally competent to stand trial and must be detained without bail to protect the community, a federal judge in Honolulu ruled Thursday.
Anil Uskanli’s attorney, Richard Sing, requested the mental competency and detention hearing to be closed to the public to protect Uskanli’s private mental health information. U.S. Magistrate Judge Kenneth Mansfield initially granted the request, but the Associated Press, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser and other media objected to closing the hearing.
On Thursday, when lawyers representing the media were prepared to argue against closing the courtroom, Sing withdrew the motion, saying his concerns could be addressed without closing the entire proceeding. That allowed the hearing to move forward in open court.
Sing told Mansfield he has no concerns about Uskanli’s competency.
Sing asked that Uskanli be released to the custody of his father, who traveled to Hawaii from Turkey and was prepared to stay in a hotel or rent a residence where they could stay in Honolulu.
But Assistant U.S. Attorney Morgan Early argued that would be dangerous for the community and for Uskanli, who suffers from a “major mental illness.”
Even though Sing promised that Uskanli’s father would manage his son’s medication and that Uskanli would check in weekly with court officials, Mansfield said there’s evidence that Uskanli poses a danger to the community.
Mansfield said Uskanli threatened to a kill an FBI agent after the plane landed in Honolulu, threatened to kill a forensic psychologist and threatened to burn down the Los Angeles federal detention center where he was undergoing his mental health evaluation.
Uskanli, 25, tried to get to the front of the plane during the flight from Los Angeles to Honolulu on May 19, according to court documents. Flight and crewmembers feared his laptop contained explosives, said a criminal complaint charging him with interfering with a flight crew.
A flight attendant blocked his path to first class with a drink cart, and he was duct-taped to his seat until the plane landed.
The disturbance prompted the Hawaii National Guard to scramble two fighter jets to escort the plane to Honolulu.
