FIREFIGHTERS' DEATHS ADD TO PRESSURE FOR DRUG TESTS

Long before he died in a restaurant blaze with another Boston
firefighter in August, there were signs things were not going right
for Paul J. Cahill.

Stopped in his car in July 2005, Firefighter Cahill refused to take a
Breathalyzer test and was convicted of drunken driving. His license
was suspended for 225 days.

Now, with accounts that an autopsy showed a high alcohol level in
Firefighter Cahill's blood and traces of cocaine in the blood of a
fellow firefighter, Warren J. Payne, who also died in the fire,
officials are looking for ways to break a long stalemate and start
mandatory random drug testing throughout firefighters' careers.

Among major cities, Boston has been a notable holdout in such
programs, fire officials around the nation said.

In New York, 6,354 firefighters, more than half the department, have
been randomly tested since 2004, with 24 testing positive. Under a
zero-tolerance policy, all who test positive are immediately
discharged, Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said.

Firefighters have voiced anguish over the Boston reports.

"Let's not forget these guys were heroes," Chief Gary G. Cassanelli of
Springfield, Mass., said. "My sense is, regardless of this, they would
have been killed in that fire. Let's hope management and labor unions
can sit down and say, 'What can be done to make sure we don't see this
again?'"

A spokesman for the Boston Fire Department, Scott Salman, said that a
valid driver's license was a job requirement and that firefighters
were supposed to show supervisors valid licenses each month and report
any arrests. It does not appear that Firefighter Cahill, 55, did so.

On the night of the fire, he called work to say he would be two hours
late and then responded to the fire within an hour of arriving, Mr.
Salman said.

A Fire Department commission has been investigating the blaze at the
Tai Ho Chinese restaurant, on Aug. 29, including whether anyone saw
Firefighter Cahill intoxicated and whether his condition and that of
Firefighter Payne, 53, may have contributed to their deaths.

"That is something that I am sure they are looking into," Mr. Salman
said.

An independent report in 1999 recommended that the department expand
drug testing, saying testing based on suspicion of use is
"insufficient to prevent dangerous or deadly situations for members of
the department and citizens of the city."

Officials have been stymied in efforts to expand the testing, because
changes require approval through collective bargaining and being made
part of the union contract. Firefighters are negotiating with the
city, and it appears almost certain that expanded drug testing will be
on the table.

All Boston firefighters have to take pre-employment drug tests and are
subject to random tests in their first year. After that, they are
tested only if suspected of using drugs and alcohol.

The department said yesterday that 159 members, or 10 percent of the
force, had been referred for drug and alcohol tests since 2004. Twelve
have been fired or resigned. This year, 40 have been tested, and three
have resigned because of positive tests, Mr. Salman said.

Bostonians have reacted sharply. Juli Hauck, owner of Comella's
restaurant in the West Roxbury neighborhood where the firefighters
worked, said the station was a "living memorial." She said the autopsy
details should have remained private.

"People here are on the defense now," Ms. Hauck said. "They want to
remember these guys as heroes."

Policies are tougher in other cities. In New York, Mr. Scoppetta
started zero tolerance for drug abuse on Aug. 16, 2004. "The message
is, 'You can't use drugs or drink on the job, while doing this very
dangerous job,'" he said.

Six days a week, officials use a computer to select firehouses
randomly and, without notice, visit at least one of them to test all
firefighters and officers at work there. All members are subject to
urine tests.

"If someone tests positive, they will be terminated," Mr. Scoppetta
said.

Officials in Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Minneapolis, Philadelphia
and Pittsburgh said they could not recall any instances in which a
firefighter died on duty and was later found to have been impaired.

In Cincinnati, Assistant Chief Mike Kroeger said his department signed
a contract a month ago that includes random drug and alcohol testing
for its 820 firefighters. The department can test up to 200 employees,
with a maximum of 80 tested for alcohol and a maximum of 120 for drugs.

Chief Kroeger said the random testing was put in the contract after an
off-duty firefighter who was driving drunk killed a person in an
accident in December. The union did not fight the provision, he said,
because "both sides knew it was something that had to be done."

Deputy Chief Joey Addie of the Montgomery, Ala., Fire Department, with
452 members, said firefighters were tested when hired, promoted and
injured on duty. They are also randomly tested. A computer picks
names, and "a chief sends a car to start picking them up," Chief Addie
said, adding, "They never know when it's coming."

San Francisco, with 1,800 firefighters, began random testing in 2005,
hiring a contractor, said a spokeswoman, Lt. Mindy Talmadge. "There
had been some incidence of substance abuse by members of the
department prior to the policy," Lieutenant Talmadge said. "They were
handled on a case-by-case basis."

"The union," she said, "did not want disparate treatment of
firefighters, and the administration did not want to be accused of
that."

Many smaller cities have not seen the need for random testing,
officials said. In Springfield, Mass., officials can call for a drug
test if they suspect a firefighter is abusing drugs or alcohol on the
job. "We'll stand behind a zero-tolerance policy," Chief Cassanelli
said. "Police and firefighters are held to a higher standard. As well
they should be."

In Chicago, officials draw 20 names a day for random tests. On
average, all 5,000 department members are tested, and "about 1 percent
are hot," a spokesman, Jerry Langford, said. Last year, Mr. Langford
said, five firefighters were dismissed or resigned because of
substance abuse.

"It's working," he said. "There was resistance in the beginning. But
now, the union's on board. It's a fact of life and part of the job.
Our goal is not to get rid of people. Our goal is to rehabilitate
people who may have a problem."