Results tagged “firefighters”

A massive fire in a Quincy apartment building on Saturday was caused by a resident illegally grilling on her patio. The fire, in Building E of the Faxon Park apartment complex on Falls Boulevard, displaced every resident of the 24-unit building. None of the residents were injured by the blaze. One Quincy firefighter was injured after falling while fighting the fire. The fire reportedly began on second-floor and spread rapidly through the open attic in the third floor. Firefighters had trouble finding hydrants to fight the fire. The building is a total loss. more ›

Massachusetts families joined Bay State firefighters in visiting Ground Zero as President Barack Obama honored victims of 9/11 days after the death of Osama bin Laden. more ›

Lynn residents are raising money for the teenage shoveler who was mugged. A girl from Hingham got hurt sledding. There's actually a school for Tea Party candidates. Remember to follow Bostonist on Twitter and like us on Facebook. more ›

The issue that caused so much drama in the past three years, the drug testing of firefighters, ended without drama today as 20 jakes at three firehouses in Boston were subjected to random drug and alcohol tests. more ›

If a vehicle crashes or something burns, read about it here. Bruce M. Shulman, 67, of East Boston is the pilot who crashed his home-made helicopter in Halifax on Sunday. He's in Brigham and Women's Hospital in critical condition. more ›

-- Five call firefighters for Brimfield and Holland, two towns in Central Massachusetts, were arrested and charged with arson for allegedly setting three fires in June and July. [WBZ] more ›

• Edward A. Kelly, 36, the Boston firefighters’ union president is leaving his position with Local 718 to work on Tower Ladder 17. Kelly plans to run for president of the Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts. [Boston Globe]

• Firefighter Phil Cetrino told the Herald how he helped rescue a woman on Monday. [Boston Herald]

The Fire Fighters Local 718 contract saga won't end. Last week, the firefighters offered to delay their 2.5% raise for a year. The Menino administration was reflexively skeptical of this seemingly reasonable offer. Menino suggested the raise might work if applied only to current firefighters. The City Council is apparently sick of this and arranged for Menino and the firefighters to meet today, and even supplied calculators. Representatives of the Menino administration and Local 718 met today from 10-10:45 a.m. in the Curley Room. No word on what was said in the meeting, or if they simply stared at each other. more ›

• Barney Frank to BP: Pay for the oil spill. [Attleboro Sun Chronicle]

• A Swampscott teen was struck by lightning Thursday as storms hit the Bay State. His only injury is a sore knee. [WHDH]

• The Comfort Inn in Revere was evacuated on Friday due to elevated carbon monoxide levels. [WCVB]

• Senate budget for next year: No new taxes, cuts to local aid. [Boston Globe]

• The Mass. Senate passed a bill to try and control healthcare costs. [AP via Google]

• Sox fans beware! The Brookline Parking Committee wants to raise meter rates and extend parking meter hours when the Red Sox are playing at Fenway Park. [Boston Globe]

• Two candidates hope to be Republican choice to challenge U.S. Rep. Barney Frank in the November election. [Attleboro Sun Chronicle]

• Republican Richard Ross is the new Scott Brown. He won the special election to fill the State Senate seat vacated by Brown. [WickedLocal Needham]

• The Boston City Council has asked MIT Economics Professor Thomas A. Kochan to review the arbitrator's decision that gave Boston firefighters a 19 percent pay raise in exchange for random drug testing. [WBUR]

• City Councilor Chuck Turner called the arbitrator's decision "fair but unaffordable," and will vote against it. The Globe actually polled all 13 councilors for their opinions. [Boston Globe]

• Boston City Council president Michael P. Ross won't endorse an arbitrator's decision that settles Mayor Menino's contract dispute with firefighters without a hearing. Firefighters get a 19% raise over four years for submitting to random drug and alcohol testing. [Boston Globe]

• At-large Councilor Ayanna Pressley seems to agree with Michael Ross. [Universal Hub]

The Massachusetts arbitration panel voted 2-1 to possibly solve a three-year contract dispute between Mayor Thomas M. Menino and Boston Firefighters Local 718. The new contract includes a 19% raise over four years and mandatory drug and alcohol testing, which had been a sticking point in negotiations since two firefighters, one reportedly with cocaine in his system and the other allegedly with alcohol in his system, were killed in a West Roxbury fire in 2007. Menino said the award will cost an extra $74 million, and that he is "required by law" to submit the arbitration award to the City Council on Tuesday. Both sides return to arbitration if the City Council refuses to fund the raise. It's the biggest pay increase in any union contract with Boston. [Boston Globe, WHDH, WickedLocal Allston-Brighton] more ›

• Thirteen communities Massachusetts are getting $8.1 million in federal stimulus cash to rehire 127 firefighters. [Boston Herald]

• While Martha Coakley has some favorable polling data, Alan Khazei has something Coakley probably won't get: the endorsement of a Kennedy, in this case, RFK's son Max Kennedy. [Boston Globe]

Update: It pains us to write this, because the whole event seemed so hilarious—another reason to love our Jakes—but, apparently, the fire drill was not the doing of the Boston Fire Department. Our usually more level-headed friends at Universal Hub, where we got the story in the first place, have issued a retraction, and we'll do the same. Apparently, the fire drill was scheduled by the building management, not the BFD. So, sorry, Jakes! more ›

The Suffolk County D.A.'s office has just announced the arrest of Paul Bradley, Jr., a Boston firefighter, and his father, Paul Bradley, Sr., on fugitive justice charges. The two men are wanted in the State of Maine for allegedly operating a marijuana grow house, which included 22 marijuana plants. Bradley isn't the first Boston Jake to find himself the target of a drug investigation. Firefighter Sean Berte had his Maine home raided in May, when police allegedly turned up 131 marijuana plants, which means that Bradley had some alleged catching up to do. And last November, Texas police busted a disabled Boston firefighter allegedly rolling through the state with 41 pounds of weed. more ›

Sunday's slow pace followed an action-packed July 4 for this Bostonist. That left free time for some idle thoughts on some pressing, or not depending on your perspective, issues: more ›

The city of Boston and the men who fill the ranks of the Boston Fire Department simply can't get along. Contract disputes have long since gone nuclear and now any controversy turns into a five-alarm blaze of rhetoric and posturing perfectly designed for the city's competitive media outlets. more ›

It's a time-honored tradition: when laws get tough, people scramble to avoid them. The latest instance of this phenomenon comes with Boston firefighters, who are hurrying to cash in their pensions before a new law goes into effect that would reduce the size of said pensions. Firefighters who were injured on the job while filling in for a (higher-paid) supervisor used to be able to get additional pension money when filing for disability, due to their temporarily elevated status. About 100 firefighters had filed for such benefits over the past six years, but the change in the law has prompted 29 former flame-battlers to try to get in on the hot action this week (perhaps before beginning their bodybuilding careers). The new law bases pension for disabled firefighters on the firefighters' own average salary, not that of supervisors. more ›

• A fire truck crashed into a building in Mission Hill. One firefighter was killed, three firefighters were hurt, and some children that had been in the building suffered minor injuries as well. The truck's brakes may have failed. [Globe]
• Salmonella strikes Mass. [Herald]
• Gary Wilson, originally assigned to investigate DiMasi accountant Richard Vitale, has been removed from the case for donating to DiMasi's campaign. [Globe]

...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." more ›

Professional bodybuilders are no longer entitled to disability pay. more ›

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. more ›