Entries from Bostonist tagged with 'bostonfiredepartment>'
August 25, 2008
-- A man suspected of being homeless was found stabbed to death in a small Dorchester park this morning. [Globe] -- After Friday's shooting on the Boston waterfront was linked to a reggae and hip-hop cruise, police feared escalated violence at this weekend's Caribbean Festival, which has seen bloodshed in the past. So, police rounded up the usual suspects before the event even started. 56 suspected gang members and alleged criminals were arrested in a......
Continue Reading "Boston Blotter: Body Found in Dorchester Park, Arrests Before, During Caribbean Festival"July 27, 2008
...including, possibly, cover-ups. The Globe reports that the medical files of three Boston jakes who had claimed career-ending injuries cannot be found by FBI agents investigating improper disability claims. Samuel Tyler, president of Boston Municipal Research Bureau, a business-funded watchdog group put it drolly, "The suspicious disappearance of the files would seem to reaffirm suspicions that some of the injuries being investigated by the US attorney may not have been legitimate."......
Continue Reading "Boston Fire Department: Subtle in all Things..."July 14, 2008
Professional bodybuilders are no longer entitled to disability pay.......
Continue Reading "Uplifting News from Boston Fire Department"April 17, 2008
The Boston Fire Department thought they had problems with Mayor Tom Menino when they were resistant to random drug testing. Now the federal government has reason to investigate them. It appears that some firefighters have been making disability claims at higher rates by claiming that they were filling in for a supervisor, hence making more money and getting more in their pensions. The US government is hard up for money, and the FBI wants to......
Continue Reading "BFD, For Real: Boston Fire Department Under Fire, Again"April 2, 2008
The Globe reports that an electrical fire broke out on the 12th floor of One Beacon around noon today. As of right now, two people have been sent to the hospital, and Andrew Ryan reported that one person was burned severely. Jessica Fargen at the Herald found more details on the victims. They were employees of the building's management company, and they were working in an electrical transformer room. WBZ described the scene: "Hundreds of......
Continue Reading "Breaking: Electrical Fire at One Beacon"March 31, 2008
Today's Globe featured a story on the tremendous pull that police and fire unions have on city government. Roderick Fraser Jr. heads the fire department, but Local 718 Ed Kelly has his own ideas for the direction of the fire department. Mayor Menino's disputes with the fire department, particularly over the issue of drug testing after the Tai Ho Restaurant fire, which killed firefighters Paul Cahill and Warren Payne, are notorious. It still isn't clear......
Continue Reading "City Versus the Unions?"March 8, 2008
Whether or not you think pot is a big deal, the fact that a Boston Firefighter was arrested for buying pot today doesn't bode well for the fire department's resistance to the mayor's desire to start random drug testing. Anthony Gaston is accused of, according to the Herald, "smoking a joint inside a department car." Making things weirder, he wasn't even scheduled to be at work. He was also allegedly carrying prescription pain killers. Other......
Continue Reading "Uh-Oh. Fire Department Officer Busted for Pot"January 7, 2008
--Three firefighters were injured in a blaze in Weymouth. At first, officials suspected arson because the home was about to be sold, but they've since declared it accidental. [WBZ] --Firefighters could use a dose of good PR, but it's not coming. On the heels of cheating accusations, some firefighters are under suspicion of boosting their disability pensions by claiming their injuries took place when they were filling in for higher-paid superiors. [Boston Globe] --In a......
Continue Reading "Bite Size News"January 6, 2008
--News the Boston Fire Department doesn't need: An anonymous person has accused firefighters of cheating on a promotional test in November. [Boston Globe] --In Hyde Park yesterday, a four-alarm fire that started at Maria's Hair Fashion damaged eight apartments, two restaurants, the salon, and another business. No one was seriously hurt, but this is the second time a salon belonging to the same owner has burned down. [Boston Herald] --Mary Marques, the oldest resident......
Continue Reading "Bite Size News"May 30, 2007
People are feeling jittery again. A strip mall in Ashland was evacuated earlier today – all because of a fax message to a Bank of America that included an awkward ClipArt image of a hand setting off a bomb. Turns out "the fax was sent by a marketing group for a promotion to kick off a special offer from the bank." We're not sure why marketing companies don't think before they fax. Didn't they learn......
Continue Reading "Boston Blotter: No, Not a Buh, a Bomb"May 1, 2007
This from WBZ: A two-alarm fire that started at about 8:20 pm shut down the Longfellow Bridge. Trains were stopped, traffic was diverted, and heavy smoke forced the Charles-MGH station to shut down. The MBTA has posted the alert on its website and offered a few terse details: "A homeless man started a fire underneath the Longfellow Bridge. As a result the Boston Fire Department has stopped all traffic. Subway Red Line service is being......
Continue Reading "Breaking: Fire Shuts Down Longfellow Bridge, Storrow Drive, Red Line"February 3, 2005
Afraid that Boston would succumb to the C line controversy that’s rocked Gothamist commuters the Boston Fire Department told NSTAR to cut power to a couple thousand Bostonians for a short time yesterday evening. MBTA power substation near JFK/UMass Station blew up when gas had leaked into the area where a generator started up to create the power to run trains on the Red Line. MBTA has told commuters that they should expect fewer......
Continue Reading "A Delay in the Life of the Red Line"