FIREFIGHTER CLAIMS HIS COLLEAGUES DEALT DRUGS AND PORN AT STATION

FIREMEN engaged in drug dealing and heavy drinking and ran a
pornographic film library at a fire station, a former firefighter told
an employment tribunal yesterday. One senior officer handed out
cannabis joints and bragged about drug dealing to colleagues, the
Stratford Employment Tribunal in East London was told. Other firemen
carried out second jobs at work, even using fire tenders for
moonlighting.

William Byrne, 46, from Dublin, made the allegations in a claim
against the London Fire Brigade for race discrimination. He claims
that he suffered harassment and victimisation at Poplar after he
revealed a drug culture.

He said that while he was station officer of Edmonton Station in
Enfield, he found one fireman using a room as an office for the
building firm that he ran as a second job, while another, a part-time
DJ, was storing sound system and disco equipment at the station.

He also told how pornography was "endemic" throughout the brigade.
He said that in January fellow firefighters planted porn magazines in
his locker after he banned their display in the station. He said:
"Engines would attend Southgate Fire Station from far-flung stations
to lend pornographic videos from a library in the locker room."

Giving evidence for Mr Byrne, a former firefighter, Peter Breen,
alleged drink and drug abuse at Poplar Fire Station in the early
1990s. Mr Breen said that he was attending Alcoholics Anonymous in
September 1994. "Some members of the watch met this with hostility
and derision," he said.Mr Breen alleged that life at Poplar "got
much worse" after Sub-Officer Andrew Phillips started at the
station. He said: "On one of his first nights in charge, Mr Phillips
presented some members with previously rolled cannabis joints."

Mr Byrne has told the tribunal that he was discriminated against
because of his Irish roots and had been stereotyped as "a mad
Irishman, a member of the IRA with fast cars and big guns, and stupid".

He told how he suffered constant racial abuse at Poplar, including an
offensive note scrawled on a wage slip sent to his home in September
2000. The police were informed, the tribunal was told.

Mr Byrne said that the harassment became so bad that he requested a
transfer, moving to Edmonton in January 2000. London Fire and
Emergency Planning Authority, which runs the Fire Brigade, denies the
allegations. Ian Bone, the fire brigade's former director of
personnel, who headed an investigation into Mr Byrne's allegations,
said that he had found "virtually no evidence" to support them.

He told the tribunal that Mr Byrne had frequent disagreements with
colleagues at Edmonton, but his inquiry concluded that Mr Byrne needed
training in interpersonal skills.

Mr Bone said: "Mr Byrne had more run-ins with people with whom he
worked, either senior level, peer group, or subordinates, than I think
anybody regarded as normal. I concluded he is an embittered man
unwilling to consider anybody else's point of view."

The hearing continues.