Results tagged “bfd”

-- A Somerville man was stabbed repeatedly outside of the CVS on JFK Street in Harvard Square early Saturday morning before taking a cab to the emergency room. The man described three suspects to police, who have released little information about the incident. [Cambridge Chronicle] more ›

We've always been somewhat leery of that gaping abyss between the subway platform and the subway itself. Most days we can step over it just fine, but when we have a rolling suitcase with us, we pull extra hard to make sure it doesn't get stuck, and we cringe a little when watching dogs or small children step over a crack that's bigger than their feet. "What if?" we always wonder. So we were horrified, if not 100% surprised, to read of a woman getting her foot stuck between the car and the platform at Park Street today. It may not be surprising that you could get your foot stuck in that area, but what is surprising is that the MBTA was able to resolve the incident in only 15 minutes—and the train didn't even try to take off while the woman was stuck. Is this the beginning of a new MBTA era in which bad situations are handled quickly and well? We don't want to speak too soon, but we hope so. more ›

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 ›

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 ›

Boston can boast about yet another important achievement: spending the most money per capita on firefighting and emergency medical services. We spend $452 per resident annually, far more than second-place San Francisco's $316 per resident. Unions are being blamed in part for the expense of firefighting in the city, as are outdated divisions that track unnecessary equipment. Whatever the cause, we can't argue that the high expenditures have prevented disaster: we've lost El Pelon, seen fire trucks crash (likely due to equipment failure), and paid disability out the nose (including to bodybuilders). The BFD even lost two of their own in a terrible fire made even more awful by autopsy results indicating drug use. Basically, the BFD is a Big Fucking Disaster—and more money isn't the thing that will fix it. more ›

Boston firefighters lead busy lives. When they aren't allegedly smoking weed and popping pills in city vehicles, rolling through Texas with 41 pounds of weed, leading double lives as girlfriend-stalking bodybuilders, or fighting fires while coked up and drunk, they are attending union meetings where they steadfastly refuse to submit to drug tests. How can we expect them to work in a little exercise with such a full schedule? That's why the firefighters' union is pushing for fitness bonuses just like the cops get. Honestly, if the fitness test involves substance abuse screening, this Bostonist is all for it. more ›

...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 ›