The Hawaiʻi County Fire Commission has tapped Daniel Volpe to serve as Big Island's next fire chief.
Volpe, who has been with the Hawaiʻi Fire Department since 2005, already has a good sense of what the job entails. He was named temporary fire chief in January after the sudden passing of Fire Chief Kazuo Todd late last year.
"I have no illusions. I know this is 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It's questions, it's concerns, it's community, it's everything. I know exactly what I'm walking into," Volpe told the Fire Commission during final interviews for the position on Wednesday.
Over the last 10 months, Volpe has led Hawaiʻi County's fire department as they grieved the loss of their leader, managed budget hearings and responded to natural disasters like Hurricane Lala.
Volpe told the commission that he was proud of his department's service.
"We have been through a lot. The men and women of this fire department continue to come to work every single day. They do their job with dignity, with professionalism. I am so grateful to see what they've done in the last 10 months," he said.
Selection process
Volpe was chosen from a pool of six candidates, all of whom were interviewed by the commission on Wednesday. Aside from Volpe, the top three finalists included Hawaiʻi Fire Department Battalion Chief Melanie Keolanui and retired Fire Captain Garrett Kim.
The candidates were scored on the strength of a written assessment and their answers in yesterday's oral interviews. Keolanui, who has 22 years of experience with the department, was only a few points shy of Volpe.
Keolanui was born and raised in Hilo, where her family has deep ties — she said during her interview that her great-grandfather was the first elected sheriff of Hilo. Several community members testified in support of Keolanui, and she said those connections would help her be an effective fire chief.
"A leader comes with a team, and I feel that I can bring a different type of team. I have connections, just being from the Big Island, from Hilo, I have people that are willing to step up and help me. I've already been told by members of the community that they would be there to help if I needed it," she told the commission during her interview.
During their deliberations, the commissioners commended Keolanui as a strong candidate with broad support. But Volpe's experience in the role of chief prevailed — the commission selected Volpe to serve as the fire chief in a majority vote on Wednesday morning.
"The important step now is who you pick for deputy chief. That is a big decision I think you shouldn't take lightly," Fire Commission Chair Gerald Kosaki told Volpe.
The commission asked each candidate to speak on the biggest challenges facing the fire department. Volpe listed three: a wave of retirements expected over the next eight years, during which the department could lose up to 40 people; the rising costs of goods, including fuel and electricity, that the department's budget must absorb; and a warming climate that's exacerbating the natural hazards facing the department.
Volpe said that he was prepared to help Hawaiʻi's firefighters navigate this changing landscape. In his two decades with the department, Volpe has served as a fire medical specialist, a fire captain, a battalion chief and most recently the deputy fire chief to Kazuo Todd. As fire chief, he said his primary goal would be to make sure his firefighters in the field have the resources they need to operate effectively.
"As an administrator coming to a specialized, very technical rescue, my job is not to tie the knot. My job is not to tell the captain how to tie the knot. My job is to make sure there's rope," he said.
Community expresses hopes for next fire chief
Ahead of the Fire Commission's announcement, HPR spoke with community organizations and advocates about what they hoped the next fire chief would bring to the table.
Frank Sayre and Laura Mallery-Sayre have championed the Hawaiʻi Fire Department for nearly 30 years, helping to fundraise millions of dollars for the island's first responders.
Their advocacy was born out of personal tragedy. In 1997, their 25-year-old son Daniel slipped and fell off a cliff while hiking in Polulū Valley.
It took a rescue team from Waiakea Fire Station hours to recover Daniel's body. The firefighters put their safety at risk in order to bring Daniel home, according to Laura Mallery-Sayre.
"They didn't know who we were, they didn't know who Dan was, but they put their lives on the line to do this mission for us," Mallery-Sayre told HPR.
She and her husband later found out that part of the reason why that mission was so challenging was because the firefighters didn't have the appropriate resources.
"They didn't have rescue ropes, nor the training. So we, at that point, decided to make it a mission to get them the equipment that they needed and the training that they needed," she said.
The Sayres started a foundation in their son's name. In their three decades working alongside the fire department, they've helped procure life-saving equipment and made a tangible difference for the island's responders — but the work never feels done.
"It doesn't end. The equipment wears out. Parts have to be replaced, and the mission expands," Mallery-Sayre said.
With a budget of about $88 million in county funds, the Hawaiʻi Fire Department operates 41 stations — about half of which are volunteer-led — as well as the county's ocean safety response teams.
Mallery-Sayre said the island's expansive terrain and increasing climate-fueled disasters have put additional financial pressures on the department. She believes the next fire chief needs to effectively pursue federal and state grants, as well as private donations, to supplement the department's budget.
Ultimately, she's hopeful the next fire chief can make the case that the county needs to put more funding toward the island's fire responders.
"It would be nice to make our foundation obsolete," she said.
Hawaiʻi Wildfire Management Organization Co-Executive Director Elizabeth Pickett said the fire department's leadership has long understood the importance of wildfire prevention and mitigation measures. She said she hopes her organization's partnership with the fire department can continue under the next fire chief.
"Prevention needs to be a core leadership priority. I mean, we ask a tremendous amount of our firefighters, and one of the best ways to support them is to reduce the hazards that they'll face, and that requires better land management, safer homes, community preparedness, and really doing all that planning before there ever is a fire," she told HPR.
While reducing wildfire risk has direct impacts on firefighters, the work of wildfire mitigation is not entirely within the fire department's control. Pickett said the fire chief therefore needs to be able to bring different stakeholders together.
"We really look for a collaborative, accountable leader … someone who listens to the frontline personnel, but also communities, and respects local knowledge and works well across agencies and can explain both what the department needs and also what progress is needed across the system and can be a part of moving all of that forward together as a team," she said.
Wildfire prevention is an especially heated topic in fire-prone Waikoloa Village, where community advocates have been calling for another evacuation route for years.
The Wildfire Safety Advocates of Waikoloa have had frequent — and often tense — interactions with county officials about efforts to make the village safer.
Member Bob Yuenke said one meeting stood out from the rest — a town hall held in Waikoloa by Fire Chief Kazuo Todd before his passing.
Yuenke said Todd candidly discussed Waikoloa's risks and responded to the community's concerns.
"It was one of the most honest, not politically-motivated or policy-oriented conversations we ever had with any county official. He just laid it out there," Yuenke told HPR.
Yuenke hopes the next fire chief will be responsive to concerns that community members across Hawaiʻi Island have about evacuation routes and water resources.
"I think the chief needs to recognize that his voice needs to be heard on those issues, even though he's not the decision-maker, because those issues are really critical to fulfilling his mission, which is to protect us," he said.
