More random drug tests required

In New York, a firefighter who was high on cocaine crashed his fire engine into another firetruck on the way to a blaze, causing a multicar pileup that injured 13 people. In San Francisco, a surprise inspection of a firehouse uncovered four fighters drinking alcohol. During a routine traffic stop in Chicago, police arrested a Fire Department captain for possession of crack cocaine.

Many fire departments across the country have confronted drug and alcohol abuse in their ranks. And many - including Houston, Baltimore, San Francisco, New York, and Chicago - have responded by requiring their firefighters to undergo random drug and alcohol testing, calling it a matter of safety for firefighters and the public.

As Boston grapples with the revelation that one of the two firefighters who died in a West Roxbury restaurant fire in August was legally drunk and the other had traces of cocaine in his system, the lack of random drug testing in Boston could become a major issue. Boston requires its firefighters to undergo testing only if their superiors notice them acting erratically.

"I'm surprised that Boston firefighters do not have a program," said J. Michael Walsh, who was executive director of the President's Drug Advisory Council in the first Bush administration and director of applied research at the National Institute on Drug Abuse in the Reagan administration. "That's a tough job they've got, and there's a lot of down time, but when the alarm goes, you have to be ready to go at any time."

Some cities, such as New York, automatically dismiss firefighters who test positive for drugs. Others, like San Francisco, which started random drug testing in September 2005, allow firefighters to take an unpaid leave and enroll in a rehabilitation program.

Unions have traditionally fought random drug testing programs, arguing that they violate a firefighter's right to privacy. But Walsh said union opposition to random testing has been dissipating in recent years.

Lieutenant Mindy Talmadge of the San Francisco Fire Department said random drug testing is "something fire departments are leaning toward, because, obviously, these people are human beings and exposed to traumatic events and some people end up abusing substances."

In Chicago, some of the city's 4,400 firefighters opposed random drug testing when it started in July 2004. Now, drug testing is "accepted as a fact of life for this job," said department spokesman Larry Langford. "People look at it as something you've got to do."

Some firefighters even make a tradition of buying pizza for the station when they are chosen for drug testing, Langford said. The testing, he said, gives firefighters confidence that their colleagues are up to the task when they fight a blaze.

"You know your partner, the men and women you're working with side by side, and who are going to cover your back, are all good," Langford said. "Everybody is clean and up to the job to save each other and the public."

In Chicago, a few firefighters have tested positive for drugs and been dismissed, Langford said. In New York, which started random testing in August 2004, the city has found 24 violators among the 6,427 fire employees it has tested, said Jim Long, a Fire Department spokesman.

"It's been effective as a deterrent," Long said.

In Houston, which has randomly tested its 4,000 firefighters for 14 years, firefighters have accepted the program because "it's fair," said Captain Beda Kent, a department spokeswoman.

"It's all computer-based," Kent said of the selection process. "It's not one person picking on an individual."

Michael Levenson can be reached at mlevenson@globe.com.