Menino to review city fire agency
159 members got substance treatment; Mandatory, random tests urged
Mayor Thomas M. Menino launched a fresh review of the Boston Fire Department yesterday amid mounting evidence of substance abuse within its ranks, including a revelation that 159 firefighters, about 10 percent of the current force, were referred to treatment programs in the last three years.
Those 159 firefighters were ordered to undergo substance abuse treatment because they appeared to their superiors to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs while on duty, said Lieutenant William Ostiguy, who runs the treatment programs for the department. Twelve of the firefighters have been fired or forced to resign or retire for subsequent abuse.
The Globe reported yesterday that firefighter Paul Cahill had a blood-alcohol level of 0.27 percent, far above the legal limit for someone to drive in Massachusetts, when he died in an August fire at a Chinese restaurant in West Roxbury. Firefighter Warren Payne, who also died in the blaze, had traces of cocaine in his system. The information was in autopsy reports that were described to the Globe by two government officials.
Yesterday, the Registry of Motor Vehicles confirmed that Cahill had been convicted of a drunken driving offense stemming from a July 2005 occurrence on the South Shore. He declined to take a breath test and lost his license for 225 days. A city official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he never reported the matter to his superiors, a violation of department rules.
While Fire Commissioner Roderick Fraser said he was surprised that any firefighters abused alcohol or drugs on the job, Menino suggested that the deaths of Cahill and Payne have added a sense of urgency to the issue of substance abuse among firefighters.
"I think there's more call now [for change] on this issue than before," he said. "We must do something."
He said he will use contract talks to renew a demand for mandatory and random drug and alcohol testing of firefighters. The provision has been opposed in the past by the city's powerful firefighters union, but implemented in many other big city fire departments across the nation, including Houston, Baltimore, San Francisco, Philadelphia, New York, and Chicago.
Edward Kelly, president of the union, Local 718, did not respond to several messages seeking comment yesterday. He released a prepared statement lashing out at government officials who disclosed the autopsy results to the media and calling for a criminal investigation of the leaks.
"The reckless and illegal release of confidential information has placed an undeserved emotional trauma on the Cahill and Payne families at a time when the grief and suffering from their loss is ongoing," Kelly said in the statement.
Cahill and Payne were among the first firefighters to enter the Tai Ho Mandarin and Cantonese Restaurant on Centre Street in West Roxbury. Cahill was on the lead end of a fire hose, heading into the kitchen, and Payne, who was responsible for helping with a preliminary search for victims, was in the kitchen when the kitchen ceiling exploded downward, fire officials have said. Payne died instantly in a massive fireball. Cahill also died in the explosion, probably from a heart attack, the officials said.
An outside group studying the Fire Department in 1999, known as the O'Toole Commission, said it received numerous reports of firefighters using banned substances while on duty. The commission's report concluded that the department's drug and alcohol testing policy, which does not allow random testing, is "insufficient to prevent dangerous or deadly situations for members of the Department and citizens of the City."
But in the seven years since the report's release, the city has failed to change its testing and discipline policies. Under current policy, the department tests firefighters before they are hired and then once or twice during a probationary period. After that they are tested only when supervisors believe they are displaying signs of being under the influence while on duty, fire officials said.
Fire officials declined to say whether Cahill was one of the 159 firefighters ordered into treatment since January 2004, or whether he had a history of substance abuse. Officials also would not say whether Payne had been ordered into treatment. The department currently employs 1,501 firefighters.
With union opposition to reforms, the Fire Department's testing policies have remained virtually unchanged since 1989, fire officials said. In most cases, department officers threaten underlings with testing, said Ostiguy. As a matter of course, they are not tested if they agree to sign up for treatment.
"The officers usually will say to them, 'Either you're going to address the situation right now, or I'm going to test you,' " Ostiguy said. "In a sense you get more with honey than with vinegar."
Once firefighters enroll in a treatment program, they generally submit to urine tests twice a month for a year, Ostiguy said. If they test positive once, they are automatically suspended for 30 days. If they test positive again, they are supposed to be fired, though typically they are given the opportunity to resign or retire first, according to Fire Department spokesman Steve MacDonald.
The outside panel that reviewed Fire Department operations in 1999, which was convened after a Globe series revealed rampant mismanagement in the Fire DePartment, was led by the state's public safety secretary at the time, Kathleen M. O'Toole. The O'Toole Commission recommended testing of all firefighters, but it did not set out a specific proposal.
The Boston Municipal Research Bureau, a business-funded city watchdog organization, backed up the commission's conclusions with two reports of its own in 2001, calling on the city to institute the commission's recommendations and issue regular reports about its progress. No reports were issued, said Samuel Tyler, who runs the bureau.
"We still think, particularly now in light of the tragic loss of two firefighters, the city should take the steps, and push harder on the negotiations for an expanded system of drug testing," Tyler said.
Fraser said yesterday he has seen no evidence of problems in the department.
"I've visited every single firehouse in the city, some of them on numerous occasions, and I met everyone who was on duty," Fraser said. "Never once did I get any indication that anyone I talked to was using controlled substances or under the influence of alcohol."
Fraser said he is open to the outside review and said department officials are doing all they can meanwhile. "We are making sure we do the maximum amount of drug testing allowed under the current contract," he said.
Alcohol is typically the substance most abused by public safety workers. A June report on substance abuse in the US workforce found that 9.1 percent of workers in a group that includes firefighters reported heavy alcohol use in the previous month. That class of workers also includes law enforcement employees. The rate of alcohol use in the protective service category was slightly above the national average for all workers, according to the report by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Conversely, firefighters, law enforcement workers, and others in the protective service group had the lowest rate of illicit drug use of any group of workers, with 1.5 percent reporting drug use in the past month.
Some forensic scientists said yesterday that they were skeptical of the autopsy findings on Cahill and Payne, particularly the 0.27 percent blood-alcohol content that one of the government officials said Cahill registered.
"I've done firemen autopsies before, I've done police autopsies, a lot of work-related fatalities, and I've never seen anybody with a .26 or anything like that," said Dr. Richard T. Callery, chief medical examiner for Delaware and director of the state crime laboratory there. "How do you actually function at that level? You're blasted. . . . I'm just astounded that could go unnoticed, if indeed it's true."
Callery said fire might affect the ability to get a reliable blood or tissue sample to test.
Two alcohol addiction specialists said yesterday that alcohol tolerance plays a large role in the effects of alcohol on different individuals.
"I've had patients walk in here with a .40, and they're still walking because they've built up such a tolerance," said Nancy E. Paull, chief executive officer of Stanley Street Treatment & Resources Inc., which runs a detoxification unit in Fall River.
Stephen Smith contributed to this report. Donovan Slack can be reached at dslack@globe.com. 