Tai Ho

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:

• Ineffective incident management system at the incident.
• Insufficient incident management training and requirements.
• Insufficient tactics and training.
• Ineffective communications.
• Delay in establishing a rapid intervention team.
• Inadequate building code enforcement and development.
• Inadequate turnout clothing and personal protective equipment.

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.

Firefighters get ready. Photo
from Bulletin Newspapers.

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.

A Boston Fire Department board of inquiry earlier ruled the two would have died anyway because of the nature of the fireball that erupted, but that it didn't have enough evidence to determine if the two were under the influence of either drugs or alcohol. Fire Commissioner Rod Fraser has ordered a new report.

Conley did not state what those autopsy and toxicology results showed:

The question of the presence of alcohol and/or other intoxicating substances was considered along with all other evidence and in no way changes our determination that there are no criminal charges to attach to the deaths of these firefighters.

Conley's complete statement: Read more

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. Read more

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.

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.

"Indeed and famously," the judge continued, "the presumption against prior restraints on free speech has prevailed even when the materials at issue are stolen and deal with issues of national security." ...

Other Tai Ho notes: Read more

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.

But, to single then out is wrong. Whether we like it or not, this is a legitimate story. And as we have learned from CSI and the other shows of its genre, evidence doesn't lie. The odds on mixing up the samples, even in a medical examiner's office as screwed up as the one in Suffolk County, are astronomical.

[Judge] Hopkins ruled that one news outlet could not report the kind of news we don't like to hear -- that even heroes are mortal human beings. That ruling is a bigger abomination than reporting the facts.

Dan Kennedy is shocked by the ruling:

By stopping WHDH-TV (Channel 7) from reporting on autopsy reports that allegedly show two Boston firefighters killed in an August restaurant blaze had abused drugs and alcohol, Hopkins violated the most basic of First Amendment protections — the protection against prior restraint. ...

The courts - right up to and including the U.S. Supreme Court - have consistently ruled that when a confidential document ends up in the hands of the media, there's nothing that can be done about it. The legal responsibility is on the keepers of those documents not to release them; the media, by contrast, have no legal obligation not to report on them. ...

Earlier:
Oh, my: Were Tai Ho firefighters drunk, on coke?

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.

From the church to the cemetery was maybe 4 or 5 miles, but it took forever. The first mile we crawled by thousands upon thousands of firefighters, 4 deep at some points, on both sides of the road. They were standing at attention in 93 degree heat wearing full dress blues and white gloves. It was so moving. They stood there looking at us with such sadness and camaraderie on their faces. One of the family was gone. You could see it on each and every face lining the streets.

Not only were there firefighters lining the streets, there were people everywhere. On balconies waving flags, on street corners leaning on storefronts and waving. Men from the barber shop with capes still around their necks. Little kids at a parochial school all lined up at the fence in their uniforms, waving madly. Moms with kids, single men and women, groups of friends. The entire way, the streets were filled with people paying their respects. It was overwhelmingly emotional. I don't even know how to describe what it felt like to see the whole city come out to honor Warren's life. ...

The Newton Tab has more.

Earlier:
One last salute.

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.

Herald: BFD searches for 3 workers who fled scene.

Globe: Built-up grease fueled a fatal restaurant blaze.

Herald: He died doing a favor.

Hikeinfo: Why wasn't an infrared camera used in the West Roxbury fire that killed two Boston firefighters?

Earlier:
Two firefighters die in West Roxbury restaurant fire.
Paying their respects.

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.

UPDATE: The fire had been slowly burning for an hour in the ceiling when it suddenly exploded into a fireball.

Two firefighters died battling a fast-moving fire at the Tai Ho Chinese restaurant on Centre Street tonight. Channel 4 reports that two more were on life support and that several others also suffered injuries; the Globe reports a total of 12 firefighters were injured.

The fire at 1727 Centre St., which shot flames into the night air, quickly went to four alarms after first erupting around 9 p.m. Channel 5 reports the firefighters became trapped when the roof collapsed.

Dead are Paul Cahill, 55, of Scituate, and Warren Payne, 53, of Canton, both of whom were among the first to respond to the fire from their station just down Centre Street.

The fire was largely contained to the restaurant and the neighboring Continental Shoppe pet-grooming store and L'Essence art gallery; however, the owner of a shop a few doors down reported extensive smoke damage to the entire block of stores, located across from the Roche Community Center.

Long after the flames were put out, owners and employees of neighboring shops and restaurants and nearby residents stood behind police tape at the intersection with Belgrade Avenue, either watching silently or trying to glean any information. A Boston Police K-9 unit stayed at the ready around the corner.