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Detail pay escalates for Boston firefighters

Loose rules prompt questions on program rare among big cities

By Andrea Estes, Globe Staff | February 13, 2006

Boston firefighters are making millions on a little-known detail program that requires private businesses to pay for off-duty firefighters who stand guard at events that fire chiefs deem potential hazards -- anything from weddings with candlelit tables to festivals where vendors cook with propane.

The program has grown dramatically in recent years, with firefighters receiving $3 million in fiscal year 2005, up from $2 million in fiscal year 2003. Some firefighters added tens of thousands of dollars to their regular pay. The rapid expansion, along with a lack of rules governing when fire details should be used, has alarmed businesses that must pay for the details and government watchdogs who say the program is out of control.

''The practice is excessive," said Samuel R. Tyler, president of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau, a business-funded watchdog. ''I understand details are even required at bingo games. The practice is also uneven. In some districts they're used extensively and other districts they're not. It just adds to the cost of doing business in the city of Boston."

Fire details are similar to police details, which are required at roadside construction sites and are paid for by the construction companies that must hire them. But unlike police details, which are mandated by city ordinance, there is nothing in state fire regulations or the city fire code requiring the practice. It's left up to fire chiefs in the city's 11 districts to decide when they must be used.

Fire officials say the program is an effective way to prevent accidental fires, including at construction sites where welding can throw sparks. But critics charge that details often serve primarily to provide firefighters opportunities for additional income in their off hours.

''I'm sure if you look back you'll find police had it and the firefighters looked and said, 'Why can't we cash in on this scam too,' and came up with a way to do it," said Barbara Anderson, who heads Citizens for Limited Taxation.

City officials have long defended private detail programs, saying they help the city provide services while bringing revenue to the city. ''It helps me as mayor," Menino told the Globe in 1995. ''Ten percent of the detail money goes to the city." But the city has had to subsidize the fire detail program in recent years.

The city, which collects money from the private businesses that are required to hire details, keeps 10 percent to cover administrative costs and issues the rest to the firefighters who worked. According to city records, Boston paid about $335,000 to four employees who ran the city's fire detail office in fiscal year 2004, the latest year for which figures are available. But the program generated only $217,140 for the city that year, leaving taxpayers to make up the difference of more than $117,000. In fiscal year 2005, the program was on track to record a loss again, bringing in about $300,000 in fees. The city also has had to cover $375,000 owed by companies that hired details but have so far failed to pay. Taxpayers are on the hook for that money unless the city can collect.

''We are slightly losing money," said Lisa Signori, the city's chief financial officer.

The firefighters union has strongly supported the detail program, saying it makes the city safer. Privately, union officials acknowledge it is also a key source of income for firefighters. Last year, 878 of the force's 1,400 firefighters worked paid details, according to city records. Fifty firefighters earned $10,000 or more working details, the records show. One made more than $40,000.

Details pay $32 an hour, with a guaranteed minimum of four hours per detail. If there are four firefighters assigned a detail, a superior officer must also be hired, at a higher pay rate.

Under the detail system, all applications for permits from the Boston Fire Department's fire prevention division are referred to the chief of the district where the work or special event is to take place. The chief decides whether a detail is needed, and the applicant is then referred to the city's fire detail office, which assigns off-duty firefighters from a pool of volunteers.

Some district chiefs require details frequently, while others require them less often, according to fire officials, firefighters, and companies that do business in the city. The city's fire prevention code specifies some instances when a chief can order a detail but is not required to -- for example, if someone wants to cook over an open flame in a public space, store explosives overnight, or hold a gathering that could pose a ''potential fire or panic hazard."

State and city rules require a ''fire watch" whenever welding is taking place near combustible material. But the rules do not require that the fire watch be performed by a firefighter working on a paid detail. Anyone trained in the use of a fire extinguisher, such as an employee of the company doing the welding, can perform the watch. Most district chiefs in Boston nonetheless require the job be done with paid details, refusing to issue a permit without one, according to fire officials and several private companies who regularly hire details.

''There is a need for them," said one district chief who asked to remain anonymous because he is not permitted to speak publicly without permission. ''Why certain people don't put them on, I'm not sure. But do you want to be the chief that is called in after a building burns down? Do you want to be the chief who didn't require the detail? There should be consistency, though. There should be rules."

Antonio Molina, who has run the city's Puerto Rican festival for years, said he has no idea why he's required each year to hire a half dozen firefighters on paid detail.

''If you find out what they do, you let me know," said Molina, whose group owes the city $18,000 for past fire details. Molina says his group cannot afford to pay. ''They walk around, supposedly because we have vendors who cook with propane. But if a tank blew up, I don't think there would be a fire. We have tents, but they have to be fire retardant. The firefighters are great people, but the problem is who can pay for them?"

Like police details, paid fire details are largely a Massachusetts phenomenon. Fire officials in several major cities, including Chicago, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York, said their cities never require private firms or individuals to hire off-duty firefighters.

''That's ridiculous," said Commander Will Knight, spokesman for the Chicago Fire Department. ''What do they do, bring a 500-gallon fire truck with them? Our official statement is no -- we don't require companies to hire firefighters to stand watch . . . under no circumstances."

The Los Angeles City Fire Department requires on-site ''fire safety inspectors" on movie sets and at large gatherings such as the Academy Awards or the Grammys, officials said.

Boston fire officials said the detail program is growing because of higher demand.

''They are probably working more details, with the construction and building boom of the last 10 or 12 years in the city, " said Lieutenant David Pfeil, spokesman for the Fire Department.

Some companies that have been required to hire off-duty firefighters for detail work said fire details serve a valuable purpose.

''It's like a police detail. You can get subjective about it and question the need or the severity of the situation, but for the most part they do" provide a service, said John Hynes, president of Gale International, which developed a $350 million office building at One Lincoln Street. The company was required to hire details to monitor construction during a phase of the project when the sprinkler system and fire alarms were disabled. ''They make sure that while you're building one space, other spaces are protected. You shut off the sprinklers and they make sure you're not putting other floors in danger."

Edward Kelly, president of the Firefighters Local Union 718 who has worked dozens of details, recalled the 1972 Hotel Vendome fire in the Back Bay that killed nine firefighters. He said firefighters working details make the city a safer place.

''If no one was monitoring the sparks, a fire behind a wall could kindle for hours," he said. ''That's how the Vendome fire started. They were cutting and welding without a detail. They were rehabbing the Vendome and the fire started. The reason we do them is that contractors kept burning buildings down. At the end of the day, that's what happens."

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