Channel 4 points us to a National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health report on the 2007 fire that killed Boston firefighters Paul Cahill and Warren Payne, which says a number of contributing factors led to their deaths:
Despite what the Globe and Herald wrote about the lawsuit brought by survivors of the two firefighters killed battling an out-of-control grease fire at the Tai Ho in 2007.
UPDATE: The Bulletin Newspapers report on today's memorial service as well as a barbecue banquet provided by Tex's BBQ of Dedham as a way for the firefighters to thank West Roxbury.
They're not letting the city or the union tell them how to thank West Roxbury for its support after the Tai Ho fire.
According to the Bulletin Newspapers, the men of Engine 30 and Ladder 25 will start their cookout thank-you barbecue immediately after a 1 p.m. memorial service for Warren Payne and Paul Cahill - in the Hyde Park Savings Bank parking lot next to the Centre Street station.
Fire brass had ordered the cookout canceled earlier this week, saying they did not feel it an appropriate way to honor the two men's memories.
The new plaques unveiled today (photos courtesy Bulletin Newspapers):
Cancels cookout planned for Friday; West Roxbury firefighters wanted to thank the community for its support after the Tai Ho fire.
Suffolk County DA Dan Conley announced today he's done with his investigation into the fatal fire that killed Boston firefighters Warren Payne and Paul Cahill and that he found nothing criminal.
In addition, I have authorized the release of the contents of our entire investigative file, including autopsy and toxicology results, to Boston Fire Commissioner Roderick J. Fraser, Jr. and the Boston Fire Department's Board of Inquiry should they wish to review it in the course of their own investigation.
No.
Compare his column with Peter Gelzinis's column on Saturday, when this was all still breaking news.
It's interesting to compare the second-day coverage of the report on the dead firefighters - and see how the Herald is taking the lead on the story.
Box 4-281 Report is the Board of Inquiry report into the deaths of firefighters Paul Cahill and Warren Payne at the Tai Ho restaurant in West Roxbury on Aug. 29, 2007 (It's a 9M file, so it might take awhile to download; if you have trouble, I've put a copy here).
It contains a detailed timeline of the night, background on the building and firefighting equipment and photos from the night of the fire. And it concludes the fire was caused and worsened by the restaurant's failure to adequately clean accumulated grease out of ducts and that initial efforts to fight the fire (which firefighters did not realize was as bad as it was) helped contribute to "an intense fireball" that helped disorient Cahill, Payne and other firefighters by providing a sudden infusion of oxygen to the fire.
... The substandard construction, installation and maintenance of the kitchen hood, duct and exhaust system, along with the degradation of the duct work were the underlying factors involved in this fatal fire incident. ...
The board does not actually say the two firefighters were not impaired by either alcohol or drugs, but that:
... The Board of Inquiry could find no factual indications supporting that alcohol/drug impairment contributed to or caused these two firefighters to become disoriented or inhibited their ability to perform the firefighting duties assigned to them at the fatal fire incident. ...
The Herald posts a brief story on a 134-page report due out tomorrow on the death of firefighters Paul Cahill and Warren Payne at the Tai Ho restaurant in West Roxbury on Aug. 29.
The report is due to be posted on the Fire Department Web site tomorrow.
The West Roxbury Transcript alerts us to the news that some Chinese-restaurant group this month named Tai Ho in West Roxbury one of the 100 best Chinese take-out places in America.
Only problem: Tai Ho burned to the ground in August, killing two Boston firefighters in the process.
It is difficult to find an adequate definition for the phrase "human being." Nothing I found comes close, taking into account the complexities of our species.
People don't live on the margins, none of us are all good or all bad. Our lives take place on a broad page with many choices. Good, bad, decisions we make that we would like to take back. We are all capable of great kindnesses and cruelties. Few of us would turn down the opportunity to hit the "do over" button of life and get a chance to change one aspect or another of our lives.
Jessica Heslam gets a copy of the appellate ruling letting Channel 7 air its story on the two Tai Ho firefighters by overturning a lower court ruling that banned it from doing so (even as every other news outlet in town was doing stories on the subject):
... "Simply put, the inability of the press to require the government to disclose information that is not part of the public record does not support a restraint on speech with respect to information already known to the press," Grainger wrote.
Riding a wave of public disgust over the lack of drug testing for firefighters? David Bernstein thinks it's possible.
Every other media outlet did, even BostonNow, but WHDH was enjoined by a court ruling in a case brought by the firefighters' union. The Outraged Liberal discusses that:
... I'm no fan of 7News, with its over-the-top emphasis on crime, mayhem and the latest "thing." I find their style to be overly aggressive and their heated pursuit of what I think to be non-stories as annoying.
The Globe reports:
One of two Boston firefighters who died fighting a fire in a Chinese restaurant in August was legally intoxicated at the time, and the other had cocaine in his system, according to two officials who were briefed yesterday on the autopsy results.
Also see:
Why only Channel 7 didn't report on the Tai Ho autopsies.
Mike Ball vists Forest Hills Cemetery after the burials of the two firefighters killed by the Tai Ho fire and describes the arrangements of flowers - and his surprise at learning that one of the firefighters' bodies was cremated.
Margalit attended today's funeral for Payne, whom she knew and who was one of two Boston firefighters to die in the Tai Ho fire last week:
... After the service was over we left the church with a huge honor guard at the top of the stairs all displaying the different flags representing the various fire departments in attendance. We walked slowly down the stairs, bagpipes playing in the street, and got into the car to join the funeral procession to the cemetery.
Firefighters, residents and students from the Lyndon School stood along Centre Street at the Engine 30/Ladder 25 station this morning to pay their respects to Paul Cahill, one of the two firefighters who died at the Tai Ho fire last week. As the funeral procession, with Cahill's casket atop Engine 30, approached the station, on-duty firefighters stood at attention and gave their comrade a final salute.
The procession continued to Holy Name Church, where several thousand firefighters from around the country gathered for a funeral Mass. Warren Payne, who also died in the fire, will be buried tomorrow, starting with a service at the United Church of Prayer for All People, 206 Seaver St., Dorchester, at 11 a.m.
Above: Three nuns paid their respects to the fallen and injured firefighters at the Centre Street firehouse today as photographers and cameramen somehow stayed out of their way even as they got right up in their faces.
Below: Meanwhile, over at Tai Ho, firefighters and fire investigators tried to figure out exactly what happened even as a clean-up crew began boarding up windows and sweeping the sidewalks.
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