THE DENSE smoke surrounding the question of whether drug or alcohol impairment played a role in the deaths of two Boston firefighters in an August restaurant blaze didn't abate this week with the release of a disappointing report by a panel of Boston Fire Department investigators. The panel's conclusion that impairment was not a factor in the deaths of firefighters Paul Cahill and Warren Payne is premature.
Reports based on leaked details from autopsies of the two firefighters have indicated that Cahill was legally drunk and Payne had traces of cocaine in his system when they died. Minimally, the public expected that Fire Department investigators would secure autopsy and toxicology reports needed to determine if any impairment had placed fellow firefighters or the public at unnecessary risk that night. But for reasons that were still mired in confusion yesterday, the Fire Department investigators failed to get those reports, casting doubt upon the panel's work - and underscoring much broader problems within the department.
Those charged with investigating a deadly blaze should be well acquainted with the procedure for obtaining autopsy reports. It starts at the medical examiner's office and, in cases of unnatural or suspicious deaths, ends with clearance from the district attorney's office. Yet it appears that the fire panel took a circuitous route by passing its request through a Boston Police arson investigator. And it's not certain that request reached the right people in the DA's office. It's as if the fire department investigators, who had six months to work on the report, didn't want to confront the autopsy results.
Only Fire Commissioner Rod Fraser, who did not serve on the panel, had the courage to raise painful but important questions in a follow-up letter. Key among them is whether Cahill, who entered the blaze with neither his face mark nor his radio, may have failed to escape the building due to impairment.
The terrible confusion over the fire panel report is an extension of the chaotic relationship between the fire department and City Hall. Contract negotiations between the Menino administration and the firefighters have broken down, in part, over the union's resistance to random alcohol and drug testing. The fact that the members of the investigative panel are union brothers of the fallen firefighters - as are nearly all the Fire Department brass besides Fraser - throws further doubt on the report. For its part, the firefighters union complains that its members are under siege. It wants the city to stop focusing on them and start scrutinizing the buildup of grease in the ventilation system of restaurants like the one in West Roxbury where Cahill and Payne died.
One thing is clear. No one will benefit from further investigation by the Fire Department panel. A joint investigation by the Suffolk County district attorney and Boston Police should be ready in a few weeks. Until then, a cooling-off period is in order.
