Drunk Firemen
 

http://www.boston.com/news/local/mas...officials_say/

Incredible, everyone in this Firehouse should be questioned. How do you allow a co-worker to get this druck on duty?? The guy had a blood alcohol level of .28!!! (note: .08 is legally drunk in Mass.) I'm sure that this was not the first time, or the first guy, to get drunk on duty. The other guy had cocaine in his blood. I'm sure that these facts will come to no suprise to everyone who works in this house.

Re: Drunk Firemen
 

It amazes me how these guys were getting away with what they were doing. You would think that people would want to discipline a drunk colleague even more in that situation. I mean, if I work at a bank and the guy in the next cubicle is drunk maybe I am more inclinde to mind my own business. But if I am entering a burning building and that guy is responsible for my life and safety, you damned right I want someone who isn't blasted.

Re: Drunk Firemen
 

.


There have been doctors performing operations drunk (very rare because it's almost certainly a life-time loss of license, but it has happened), and airline pilots flying drunk (more common than you would want to believe; but the FAA and others have come down very hard on them, too, so it is very rare. Has happened, though.)


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Re: Drunk Firemen
 

This is very sad, but I hate the way everything so quickly becomes news. Drunk or stoned, the men died trying to do their jobs, and for the sake of their families, it would have been much better for this news to come out later on rather than so soon.

In fact, the news was apparently leaked:

http://ledger.southofboston.com/arti...s/news0000.txt

"Despite a judge’s ruling Wednesday barring the results from being made public, the news that one of the firefighters, Paul J. Cahill, of Scituate, was legally drunk when he was killed and that the other, Warren J. Payne, 53, of Newton, had traces of cocaine in his blood, is widespread."

Re: Drunk Firemen
 

That's no good. :(

Re: Drunk Firemen
 

Hey, are you saying the media is sometimes unethical, or insincere in their reporting? :eek: Welcome to the Real World bud. ;)

Anyway, this was a tragic incident, and apparently, one that could have been avoided. I have a hard time believing that this is the first, and only time that this guy was drunk on the job. I have a harder time believing that nobody knew he had been drinking. I think that anyone who knew he was drunk that night, or knew that he was drinking on the job, should be fired. Of course, they won't be, nor will firemen be required to take drug tests like most other people do, cuz the union won't allow it. Still though, I really feel bad for the families.

Re: Drunk Firemen
 

Their lack of sobriety had no bearing on their deaths according to the experts and the witnesses at the scene. They were in the room when the ceiling basically exploded and collapsed, and that was that. Something should be done though. Its fairly obvious that this sort of thing can't be handled at the station level and that's unfortunate because at the station level is the only civilized way to handle a situation like this.

Re: Drunk Firemen
 

I'm not sure why they were in the building to begin with since the restaurant had been evactuated. Do we know why they went in? Did the impaired FF decide to go inside? Wouldn't that be a factor? I'm just speculating.

Re: Drunk Firemen
 

Dennis and Callahan were pontificating on this the other day, and through all their rhetoric and inflammed crap found out a couple of things... the drunk firefighter may have been called in, apparently off duty firemen are always on call..does not make it better, but may explain how much he had to drink...28 is a very high level and have to drink a lot to get to that point.

The same questions were asked as to why they would enter a bldg. with no one inside, no good answers to this. The other issue is who would leak this, and who will profit from it.. apparently the firefighters are not drug tested so this may be a ploy of the Menino adm.

The firefighter who had cannabis and cocaine in his blood, might not have been high, but had used recently.. cannabis can stay in your system for up to 30 days, while Cocaine has a short body life... so this is tricky.. not clear if he was called in. Either way this could have been handled privately as these guys go from being heroes to creeps, sometimes there is a need for decency.

Despite all the inflamed rhetoric and political crap, some good points were made by the callers, some of whom were firemen from Boston and Providence.

Re: Drunk Firemen
 

They were in the building to evaluate the extent of the fire. There were guys on the roof too as I understand it. The fire was between the Kitchen's ceiling and the building's roof. Which would obviously obscure its size. I'm sure Firemen are conservative with their own safety; but I expect some consideration is given to the fact that drowning the place with 50,000 gallons of water or more will ruin everything inside. When it seems appropriate they make an effort to protect property not just from the fire itself; but from their own actions too.