Autopsies suggest firefighters impaired

BOSTON – When firefighters Paul Cahill and Warren Payne died in a fast-moving restaurant fire in August, they were hailed as heroes – the first Boston firefighters to die in the line of duty since 1999.

But leaked autopsy results that reportedly showed the two may have been impaired have led Mayor Thomas Menino to demand a review of the Fire Department and prompted calls for more random drug testing of firefighters.

“I will order a stem-to-stern look at the procedures and practices of our Fire Department in the city of Boston,” Menino said after the results of the autopsies surfaced in Boston media last week.

The leaked results also landed one television station in court and sparked heated discussions on talk radio shows, with critics saying the media tarnished the dead firefighters’ reputations by reporting the autopsy results.

The reports said Cahill had registered a blood alcohol level of 0.27, more than three times the legal limit in Massachusetts, and Payne had traces of cocaine in his system.

Autopsy reports are not public documents in Massachusetts. The media reports cited confidential sources briefed on the autopsies. State and local officials have declined to comment publicly about the content of the autopsy reports.

Cahill, 55, and Payne, 53, died battling a blaze in a one-story Chinese restaurant in the city’s West Roxbury neighborhood.

Investigators said the fire burned for an hour or more inside a drop ceiling where grease had accumulated before turning into a fast-moving inferno.

Payne, a 19-year veteran of the Fire Department, had two children, and Cahill, a 14-year veteran, was a father of three. Their funerals drew firefighters from across the country and were televised live.

Before WHDH-TV Channel 7 ran a report about the leaked autopsy results Wednesday, lawyers from a firefighter’s union went to court to try to stop it.

Suffolk Superior Court Judge Merita Hopkins sided with the union and ordered the station not to air details of the autopsies.

The station appealed, arguing the injunction was an infringement on the station’s First Amendment right to free speech, and Appeals Court Justice Andrew R. Grainger lifted the injunction Thursday.

“You cannot run into a court and prevent the media … from publishing information it has,” said Mike Gass, a lawyer for the station.

Paul Hynes, a lawyer for the union, said the station knew autopsy reports in Massachusetts are not public documents and should not run information obtained from people who saw the autopsies.

“We know that information was not lawfully obtained,” he said.

“Are we to believe that they are simply going to report the story or put their spin on it?”

In the meantime, the Boston Globe and Boston Herald ran reports on the autopsies in their Thursday editions, also citing unnamed sources they said were briefed on the autopsies.

Edward Kelly, president of Boston Firefighters Local 718, has demanded a criminal investigation into the leaking of the autopsy results and prosecution of anyone responsible.