As New Year's Eve revelers prepare to light the fuse to their annual party, Honolulu firefighters and paramedics are preparing to deal with the fiery, smoky aftermath.

The eve of a new year is traditionally one of the busiest nights for emergency response units. Fires, injuries and breathing difficulties caused by fireworks keep them moving as the midnight crescendo approaches.

Both the Honolulu Fire Department and the city's Emergency Services Division plan to bring in extra people and equipment to keep pace.

For the 24-hour shift beginning at 8 this morning, the fire department will use two people instead of one on its tanker trucks and add three tanker trucks, said Capt. Kenison Tejada. The extra person allows the trucks to directly attack a blaze rather than simply supply water to other fire trucks, he said.

One of the additional trucks will be in windward O'ahu. The other two will be on the leeward side, where brush has grown drier in recent weeks, he said.

"If they need to move them around, they will move them around," Tejada said.

The city's Emergency Services Division plans to add a dispatcher as well as upgrade its two rapid response units with more personnel, effectively turning the vehicles into "full-blown ambulances," said spokesman Bryan Cheplic. However, he added yesterday morning that it was not clear how many staffers would be available for overtime shifts.

"The upgraded rapid response units will go where they are needed," Cheplic said. "They are rover units. They go anywhere they are needed on the island."

The weather is the most vexing variable for each agency.

While light winds usually increase the number of breathing problems because the smoke lingers in one place, those conditions make it easier to fight a brushfire because there are no gusts to spread the brushfire, the fire department's Tejada said.

"The winds are a mixed blessing on New Year's," he said. "For medical calls you want some breeze to blow away some smoke. But if we have a brush fire, it will help spread the fire."

The National Weather Service forecast for the last night of 2006 calls for moderate trade winds of about 10 mph and isolated showers, said forecaster Derek Wroe.

Similar conditions last New Year's Eve resulted in some of the best air quality in recent years, according to the state Department of Health's Clean Air Branch.

But branch chief Wilfred Nagamine isn't breathing easy just yet. He's hoping for wind and rain.

"Rain is good," Nagamine said. "Rain is real good. If we do have rain it dampens fireworks somewhat. It scrubs the air."

Health officials will monitor air quality at the same five locations they use each year: Honolulu, Liliha, Pearl City, Kapolei and in Kihei on Maui.

Nagamine said the low number of fireworks permits issued this year in Honolulu does not guarantee clear skies.

"It is the overall amount of fireworks that will cause the amount of emissions in the air," he said. "I assume it will be the same, but the variable is the weather. All we can do is hope for the best."

Reach Mike Gordon at mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com.