Whitewash
BFD Board of Inquiry was briefed on toxicology reports that showed one dead jake was three times the limit, the other had cocaine in his system … Just in case they missed the screaming headlines about it after the autopsy rersults were leaked last fall … but failed to include it and concluded no one was impaired. Don’t worry, there’s a logical reason for all this. Boston Herald:
The Boston Fire Department Board of Inquiry that drafted a controversial report about the deaths of two firefighters in a 2007 West Roxbury blaze was briefed at least twice about the contents of toxicology reports, but chose not to include the results in its findings, sources told the Herald.
The report of the board, made up entirely of union firefighters, found no evidence that drugs and alcohol played a role in the deaths of West Roxbury firefighters Warren Payne and Paul Cahill. This despite the fact that sources briefed on toxicology results said Cahill’s blood alcohol level was more than three times the legal limit for driving and traces of cocaine were found in Payne’s system.
During a Nov. 30 meeting at Boston Fire Department headquarters, Deputy Boston Fire Chief William Rice and Fire Lt. William Gillis, both members of the Board of Inquiry, discussed the circumstances of the blaze with homicide detectives and prosecutors to try to rule out criminality.
“It was discussed,” one source said of the autopsy results. “Everybody knew about the toxicology reports long before that meeting.”
…
Surviving relatives of firefighters killed in the line of duty are eligible for a onetime $300,000 federal payment and a $100,000 state benefit, but the payouts can be withheld if the death was the result of personal negligence, including intoxication. Both firefighters’ families will receive the jakes’ earned city pensions, however, BFD spokesman Steve MacDonald said.
Fraser said he’ll reconvene the panel, obtain the autopsy and toxicology results and bring in an outside expert to help the panel review those results. Dunbar fiercely defended the report, saying he felt the panel produced an exhaustive account of events leading up to Payne and Cahill’s deaths.
“We couldn’t come up with any indication of any kind of impairment,” Dunbar said. “The firefighters performed the acts required of them that night.”
Welcome to Boston. Do they let firefighters operate heavy machinery, run into burning buildings drunk in your town?
Topics: Boston
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 5:40 am on Saturday, February 23, 2008
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