After leasing the land beneath their training center for 26 years, Honolulu Fire Department officials were ecstatic yesterday when the Navy turned the property over to the city, and immediately announced plans to ask for hefty improvements.

Fire Chief Attilio Leonardi told officials at a ceremony to mark the transfer that he will ask the City Council next year for $1.2 million to plan and design a revamped center. And in the following year, Leonardi said, he will ask for $12 million to build it.

The Charles H. Thurston Training Center, which opened near Honolulu International Airport in 1986, has long been in need of renovation, Leonardi said. "It's only 5 acres and we need to maximize its use," he said. "Right now, we have trailers for classrooms and even have a trailer for bathrooms."

In 1979, the Navy leased the land to the city for 25 years for a dollar. The city began negotiations in 1994 to buy the land. When those efforts dragged on past the expiration of the lease, the Navy continued to lease the property to the city. About that time, a change in federal law began requiring the sale of property at fair market value unless Congress agrees to transfer ownership. In this case, the transfer was approved last fall.

Between the additional lease fees and transfer fees, the department paid a total of about $240,000 for land estimated to be worth about $10 million.

During yesterday's ceremony, the Campbell Estate and Hawaiian Electric thanked firefighters for their efforts in extinguishing the recent brushfires along the Leeward Coast, especially the one that roared within a few yards of HECO's Kahe Point power plant last week in Nanakuli.

Summer brushfires are keeping firefighters busy as the department has battled more than 700 this year — about 200 more than the total for brushfires in all 2004.

The companies will give a $20 supermarket gift certificate to each of 1,130 city and federal firefighters and more than 100 civilian and military pilots involved in combating the brushfires.

"The threat to our Kahe power plant was considerable," said T. Michael May, president and chief executive officer for HECO. "The fire burned all the way up to the perimeter. That could have been a catastrophic event had the fire breached the perimeter."

The plant generates 40 percent of the island's power.

Jennifer Davis, a firefighter with Hazmat 1, was surprised that anyone would give a firefighter a gift certificate.

"That's terrific," she said. "It's our job to be doing what we do, but when we get thanks, it's amazing."

Reach Mike Gordon at mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com.