ANOTHER BRICK just fell from the wall around the Boston Fire Department. It’s well known that the department has been compromised over the years by its imbedded culture, shady injury leaves, deferred vehicle maintenance, and shaky organizational structure. Still, Bostonians always had great faith in the BFD’s fire suppression skills. And now even that assumption is under fire.
A recent federal report on a fatal 2007 blaze in a West Roxbury restaurant exposes numerous flaws in the tactics and training of Boston firefighters. It cites lack of a command post, inadequate hoses, unprotected escape routes, and communication failure during the blaze that cost the lives of firefighters Paul Cahill and Warren Payne. The massive fireball that roared from the building, according to the report, was the result of a misguided order to break the front windows before the roof of the building had been properly ventilated.
It took a federal team from the Firefighter Fatality Division of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to create a comprehensive account of that terrible night. An earlier internal report by the BFD focused largely on grease build-up in the restaurant’s exhaust ducts. Now it is clear that inadequate technical skills, poor training, and faulty command decisions were at the root of the tragedy.
While serious efforts are underway to reform the department, it remains the case that only outsiders can be trusted to uncover its truths.
Unlike the authors of the internal report, the federal Firefighter Fatality Division made earnest, if unsuccessful, efforts to gain copies of the toxicology reports of the two fallen firefighters (the Globe has reported that firefighter Cahill was legally drunk and firefighter Payne had traces of cocaine in his system at the time of death). It’s a disgrace that more than two years later, there is still no requirement for mandatory drug and alcohol testing of Boston firefighters.
The ink on the federal report was barely dry when Boston firefighters risked their lives Thursday to rescue a 14-year-old girl from her burning home in Dorchester. The physical bravery of the city’s firefighters has never been challenged. But nearly every other aspect of the department remains open to question.
