Alcohol and drugs found in Boston autopsies; More video from Russia; Charleston visitors; Rescue Me star helps Worcester
Controversy in Boston as alcohol and cocaine found during autopsies
The story in the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald is the story of the day in the fire service. Here is the lead to the Herald story:
Autopsies performed on the two hero firefighters who perished battling a West Roxbury blaze on Aug. 29 showed that one of them was legally drunk at the fire while the other had traces of illegal drugs in his bloodstream, three city officials told the Herald.
Paul J. Cahill, 55, had a blood alcohol level of .27 – more than three times the legal alcohol limit for motorists – when he was killed fighting the fire at Tai Ho Restaurant on Centre Street in West Roxbury, said three sources with direct knowledge of the state Medical Examiner’s toxicology report that is part of the autopsy.
One of two Boston firefighters who died fighting a fire in a Chinese restaurant in late August was legally intoxicated at the time, and the other had cocaine in his system, two officials said yesterday.
A source who was briefed by a person with knowledge of the autopsies of Paul J. Cahill and Warren J. Payne told the Globe that one firefighter had a blood-alcohol level higher than .08, the level at which someone is too drunk to drive legally in Massachusetts. The other firefighter had traces of cocaine in his system, the source said.
A government official briefed on the findings of the state medical examiner’s office said Cahill registered a blood-alcohol level of .27 in the autopsy, which would have placed him at more than three times the legal limit, while Payne had cocaine in his system.
The articles of details of Local 718 going to court in an effort to keep a local TV station from reporting the autopsy findings.
This is some of the raw video of the rescues and fire.
Charleston visitors
Firefighters in trouble
In the UK, firefighters are accused of taking their appliance to, as The Sun puts it, disturb “an outdoor gay sex romp”.
A lot of fire, but little information
This is only described as a house fire in New York State on October 1.
Leary helps out Worcester
The picture above is from the Milford Daily News and so is this story:
Massachusetts native Denis Leary yesterday helped the Fire Department officially open its new, state-of-the-art training facility, which will also serve as a memorial for six local firefighters who died in the 1999 Worcester Cold Storage and Warehouse Co. fire.
The $1.7 million building, the result of a partnership between the Leary Firefighters Foundation and EMC Corp., will service firefighters throughout Central Massachusetts.
