Photo By 1st Lt. Kyler Hood | Federal firefighters Dagan Johnston, Canhuang Zhang, Austin Slade-Matautia, and Kainoa...... read more read more
In the last three years, federal firefighters on Oahu responded to 1,567 requests for fire and emergency services support from the City and County of Honolulu, according to Jason Lopez, Commander, Navy Region Hawaii (CNRH) Federal Fire Department (FFD) Assistant Chief for Emergency Medical Services. That averages out to 522 calls for federal emergency assistance each year.
“If the Federal Fire Department has the available assets and resources and the request for assistance comes in from the City and County of Honolulu, we will go and assist,” explained Lopez. “The reciprocal is also true, where the City and County of Honolulu will provide assets for the Federal Fire Department’s mutual aid requests for emergencies when our organic assets are unavailable.”
The mutual aid agreements between FFD and city and state agencies – including the Honolulu Fire Department, Honolulu Emergency Services Department, and Hawaii Airports Division – reflect a long-standing tradition of cooperation between military and civilian emergency responders dating back to World War II. Military and civilian fire protection and emergency services in Hawaii have routinely supported one another during natural disasters, aircraft accidents, and large-scale training or operational events.
The mutual aid agreement is built on reciprocity, ensuring partner agencies stand ready to provide support when resources are strained. That’s what happened in early January, when Navy Region Hawaii firefighters assigned to Marine Corps Base Hawaii FFD Station 8 responded to a mutual aid request involving an elderly woman in distress. Firefighters arrived on the scene in minutes and conducted a thorough exam on the woman, whose condition stabilized.
“When the city and county does not have the resources available at that time for 911 emergencies, we provide mutual aid to help assist and protect the communities in our surrounding area,” explained Dagan Johnston, a Navy Region Hawaii FFD firefighter and paramedic who responded to the January distress call along with fellow firefighters Canhuang Zhang, Austin Slade-Matautia, Kainoa Yester, and Lucas Gonzalez.
Johnston and paramedic Zhang oversaw the woman’s care and conducted an on-scene evaluation, which included speaking with family members and determining next steps for her care.
“We were able to do a thorough physical exam and diagnostics, and after we assessed that she was stable, we recommended that she be evaluated by another facility,” said Johnston.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between CNRH FFD and the Honolulu Emergency Services (EMS) Department outlines the agreement to provide mutual EMS response to protect military installations and adjacent civilian communities across Oahu. The MOU was signed on Feb. 24, 2021 and is reviewed annually. The most recent review took place on March 13, 2025.
Yester, a firefighter who has been with FFD for five years described his job as gratifying.
“What’s rewarding about being a firefighter, especially with mutual aid calls, is going out into the community and helping out the city and county,” he said. “We get to see new places and meet new people, and work alongside the city and county’s firemen.”
Helping people in distress is especially meaningful for him.
“It’s rewarding helping anyone on their worst day,” added Yester. “It’s really uplifting and rewarding to us, especially when it's a more critical call, such as cardiac arrest, and we bring that person back. We’ve taken many calls like that, where we’ve brought someone back, and that's one of the most rewarding parts of the job.”
Zhang, the firefighter and paramedic who monitored the elderly woman’s vital signs, said each mutual aid call offers a different lesson.
“Every call you go on, there's something to learn,” he said. “Either you could have done something maybe a little faster, or maybe the organization could have been better, but our consistent training provides confidence that everyone is doing their job right.”
Zhang said handling frequent mutual aid calls can be overwhelming, which is why CNRH FFD provides resources to help firefighters manage stress.
“If needed, peer support is available where firefighters can talk to somebody that’s trained in that field to help them cope with what they went through,” he said.
Slade-Matautia, who served as the acting lieutenant during the January response, said each emergency requires readiness and adaptability.
“When we get a call from people in their most urgent time of need, it’s important that we’re ready, we’re prepared, and we can fall back on all our training and do our best to mitigate whatever problem we have to face or overcome,” he said.
Slade-Matautia said mutual aid calls strengthen trust between Navy Region Hawaii firefighters and the surrounding community because the public views them as a reliable part of emergency services along with city and county firefighters.
“We all have the same goal, which is to be there and help everyone out because that’s the culture we have here in Hawaii,” he added.
The Navy has 13 Federal Fire Department stations distributed across every Department of Defense installation on Oahu. Nearly 300 civilian men and women provide fire and emergency services and support the State of Hawaii Airports Division, Honolulu Fire Department, and City and County of Honolulu’s EMS Division with mutual aid response.
| Date Taken: | 03.06.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 03.06.2026 16:49 |
| Story ID: | 559585 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, HAWAII, US |
| Web Views: | 32 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Emergency Services Mutual Aid Agreements Continue to Benefit Community, Installations, by PO2 Tristan Labuguen, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
