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Lingering injuries strain budget, patience
By David Armstrong, Globe Staff, 02/07/99
Francis Tierney has been a Boston firefighter for 20 years, but he hasn't been on duty in a firehouse for most of this decade.
Still, for the last eight years, Tierney has collected 100 percent of his salary tax-free for staying at his Hull home and not coming to work. He is an injured firefighter, deemed not well enough to work but without a condition that would allow him to retire on a disability pension.
According to a ranking official who asked not to be identified, Tierney says he has a heart problem that keeps him from performing his duties. He has been rejected for permanent disability because of a dispute over whether the heart problem was caused by his work as a firefighter.
Tierney is one of scores of Boston firefighters who have lingered for years in a system that even insiders say defies logic. Although the number of fires in Boston has dropped by more than half in the past decade, the city is experiencing a dramatic increase in the number of firefighters claiming they were hurt on the job.
The problem with injuries has become acute, costing the city millions of dollars in overtime to fill depleted shifts. The department's overtime budget has doubled to $6.9 million in the past four years, mostly attributable to injuries.
As of last week, 158 firefighters were listed as injured. The Police Department, with a larger uniformed force, reported 67 injured officers in the same period. The injury rate in Boston far exceeds that of comparable cities surveyed. Dallas, for example, had 12 firefighters out injured last week; Washington had 70.
Part of the problem, fire officials say, is an influx of older fire recruits. Since 1987, a change in state law has prevented the Fire Department from enforcing a regulation capping the age of recruits at 32.
As a result, the department has had to hire numerous older recruits, including a 57-year-old man and a 47-year-old woman. Some of the older recruits have been injured, said Fire Commissioner Martin E. Pierce Jr., who has been unsuccessful in his efforts to get the Legislature to restore the age cap.
Despite the reduced number of fires,
firefighting is a stressful and dangerous profession, and many of the injuries are legitimate, say fire officials.
But the system is also loaded with incentives to stay off the job. Firefighters make more money on injured leave, earning their entire salary tax-free. Injured firefighters who might be well enough to work a desk job, but not fit enough to work on a fire truck, remain on leave because the city's contract with the firefighters' union prohibits so-called modified or desk duty. Pierce said he hopes to change that policy in negotiations.
Some district chiefs are frustrated with the number of injuries, saying privately they suspect many firefighters are abusing the system. But until recently, the department did little to monitor injured workers or develop plans to return them to work.
In addition, there are no fitness programs for firefighters after they complete a one-year probationary period.
The president of the union representing firefighters rejected any suggestion the injury system is being abused.
''We just have an older department,'' said Neal Santangelo. ''The average age is 47 and if you are older you are more susceptible to injuries.''
Most troublesome are cases like Tierney's.
Many firefighters are carried on injured leave while they await approval of a disability retirement application. A disability retirement is approved if the injury is deemed to be work-related, and would prevent the firefighter from ever returning.
Once approved, the firefighter is dropped from the payroll and a new recruit can be hired to replace him. But approval of a disability retirement can take years. And if the application is rejected, the firefighter can appeal for several more years while remaining on the payroll.
There are 47 firefighters currently receiving injury pay while awaiting approval of a disability application. ''The system we work in is chaotic,'' said Deputy Chief Kevin MacCurtain.
Tierney, who did not return a telephone call seeking comment, has been rejected for disability retirement three times, as recently as last April. While he has applied, appealed, and reapplied for disability retirement, he has remained on the payroll.
After the Globe asked for injury records, the department ordered Tierney back to work. Last Tuesday, he submitted his resignation from the department.
This story ran on page A31 of the Boston Globe on 02/07/99.
© Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company.
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