Menino orders Fire Dept. to hire mechanics
Commissioner to seek four licensed civilians
Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino ordered the city's fire commissioner yesterday to hire licensed mechanics to maintain the city's firetrucks, taking abrupt action to end a longstanding dispute with the firefighters union over how the department's fleet should be maintained.
The mayor's action followed last week's death of Lieutenant Kevin M. Kelley, who was killed when a runaway ladder truck crashed into an apartment building in Mission Hill.
The brakes on the truck had not been inspected for 10 months, even though the truck's manufacturer recommends inspections every three months.
How the Boston Fire Department could fail to adequately maintain its trucks in an era when average drivers receive constant reminders for needed service still has not been fully explained by Fire Commissioner Roderick Fraser or Menino. Fraser said he was unaware of the gaps in truck maintenance until he was asked about it by the Globe this week. He said he had assumed his maintenance su pervisors were making sure the service got done.
"No one brought to my attention that we were not doing routine maintenance," Fraser said. "I have no experience in truck maintenance."
The firetruck maintenance division is currently staffed with 13 uniformed firefighters who are not licensed mechanics. The union for years has opposed attempts to change that without substantial concessions.
"This is no time to be arguing what should be union positions and what should not be union positions," Dorothy Joyce, Menino's spokeswoman, said yesterday. "We expect that the union will grieve this, but we would rather that they embrace it because this is the best thing for the safety of their members and the residents of the City of Boston."
Fraser said yesterday that the city will not replace the 13 firefighters but will add four trained civilian mechanics in the same unit to fill existing vacancies. One of the new hires will be a new superintendent of maintenance.
The president of the firefighters union, Edward A. Kelly, did not respond to a telephone message last night. He had said earlier this week that he wouldn't oppose the hiring of licensed mechanics if it were negotiated as part of contract talks.
Spot inspections since Friday's crash have uncovered brake problems and other needed repairs on at least six other firetrucks, which were removed from service. Three firehouses were left without ladder trucks last night, one each on Beacon Hill and in Dorchester and South Boston. The union also has commissioned its own inspections, creating a system of dueling inspections of trucks.
Steve MacDonald, Fire Department spokesman, said the department delayed further inspections yesterday until trucks could be returned to service. Only 12 of the city's 56 firetrucks have been inspected so far.
The lapses highlight an apparent haphazard approach to ensuring the safety and operation of the Boston Fire Department's multimillion-dollar fleet of trucks, which speed down narrow city streets and pose a significant danger to motorists and residents as well as firefighters if the equipment fails.
The Fire Department administration and union have frequently expressed concern about the deteriorating condition of the fleet. Fire officials, including Fraser, pushed the city hard to replace old trucks, an effort that has been partially successful with the purchase of eight new trucks since 2006. But Fraser and other officials did not realize, until the Globe inquired Monday, that the department had no preventive maintenance program.
Fraser said in an interview yesterday that he was previously unaware of the gaps in maintenance because he had trusted that the department's truck maintenance supervisors were running their division properly. A long-serving supervisor, Dennis Flynn, had overseen maintenance for 23 years when Fraser took over in 2006. Flynn, brother of former mayor Ray Flynn, died in August 2008. The division is now overseen by Deputy Chief Peter A. Laizza, who declined to comment.
The department's maintenance did not meet the standards recommended by many of the trucks' manufacturers, which in most cases includes inspection and maintenance of brakes and other components every three months. It relied instead on annual, state-mandated safety checks and certifications of firefighting equipment on the trucks to catch problems. It also lagged behind other big cities, including New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago, where inspection schedules are more rigorous.
When Fraser took over as commissioner in September 2006, he toured the city's 34 neighborhood firehouses and met with captains, whose top concern was the condition of firefighting equipment, including ladder trucks and fire engines. Fraser then convened a committee to conduct a detailed survey of the condition of the fleet, which resulted in a 2007 report sent to Menino.
"In my view, the ladder truck fleet is unsatisfactory and poses a potential liability for the city," Fraser wrote in the report. Nowhere in it did it discuss maintenance schedules, however.
In response to the report, the mayor authorized the purchase of new ladder trucks and fire engines, decreasing the average age of the fleet from 14 years to 9.
"Safety is of utmost importance," Fraser said. "And right now, we don't have within the maintenance division the knowledge, skills, and ability to run a routine preventive maintenance program."
Donovan Slack can be reached at dslack@globe.com. 