October 2013
| Business World Magazine | 183
the 728 square-miles which encompass-
es Maui while three other stations are
deployed on the 216 square-miles that
make-up the island of Molokai. One sta-
tion serves the 164 square-miles compris-
ing the island of Lanai, and additional res-
cues resources are provided to the island
of Kahoolawe, a largely uninhabited site
formerly used in bombing tests conduct-
ed by the U.S. Navy. Collectively, these
islands are made home by a population of
only some 150,000 residents, but annual-
ly, they attract more than two million visi-
tors. Over the course of any day, beyond
responding to a fire event at a local hotel
or private home, the MCFD could just as
easily be deployed to a rescue operation
among the cliffs of Mt. Haleakala whose
peak reaches an elevation of 10,000 feet,
or a rescue among churning ocean waves
that elevate upwards of more than 20 feet.
Recovery of victims killed following the
breaching of a dam, rescue of tourists bit-
ten by sharks or in a boating mishap, and
mitigating the impact from a series of ar-
sons intent to destroy fields of sugar cane
so vital to the community’s agricultural
economy – these are just a few of the re-
