Maui Metro Area Ranked 57 on List of Best Places for First Responders

Maui fire department training in Kahului. File photo July 2011, by Wendy Osher.

The Maui metro area that includes Kahului, Wailuku and Lahaina was ranked 57 on a list of the Best Places for First Responders.

The report, compiled by GoodCall, analyzed nearly 1,000 cities in terms of safety, housing affordability, job prospects and more.

According to the report, first responders in the Kahului-Wailuku-Lahaina area made an average salary of $56,150.

Maui’s ranking for several key areas included: 59 for comparative salary; 687 for housing affordability; 42 for job competition; 394 for job availability; 282 for crime rank; and 8 for amenities.

The ranking used US Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor statistics in determining housing affordability, which factored in the average cost of housing in each city as a percentage of average salary for first responders in that city.

The comparative salary figure was based on the average salary for first responders (firefighters, EMTs and paramedics, police officers and sheriff’s patrol officers as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics) in each city, compared to the average overall salary in that city.

Job competitiveness and availability utilized data from indeed.com and the crime ranking was based on data compiled by areavibes.com using the FBI’s uniform crime reports for 2014, which details the annual number of violent crimes in each city.

The report sought to find which communities provide the most support to first responders.  The full report is posted HERE.