By O’Ryan Johnson
The Boston Herald
BOSTON — One day after Boston fire union officials stormed out of talks with the city over drug testing, a uniformed jake was arrested in Dorchester when cops spotted him allegedly smoking a joint inside a department car, police said.
Anthony Gaston, a 25-year veteran of the Boston Fire Department, was arrested for possession of marijuana, police said. Gaston is a fire prevention officer and is assigned a Fire Department car for his job inspecting gas stations and oil tanks to ensure code compliance, said Boston Fire Department spokesman Steve MacDonald.
MacDonald said Gaston was off duty yesterday and could not explain why the firefighter was uniformed and inside a department car.
Police said an anti-crime car was on patrol on Dunlap Street about 2 p.m., across from Dorchester District Court, when officers spotted Gaston in the car smoking what appeared to be a marijuana cigarette, police said. Two others were with him in the car at the time, but neither was a firefighter, police said.
Police pulled all three out of the car and discovered bags of marijuana inside. All were arrested and charged with possession of marijuana, police said.
While Gaston was being booked at the B-3 Mattapan Precinct, police said they found prescription pain killers he was allegedly hiding.
MacDonald said Gaston, who joined the department in 1982, was immediately placed on paid leave pending the outcome of the charges.
Gaston’s arrest comes just two weeks after the Fire Department released a controversial board of inquiry report that ignored possible drug and alcohol use by two firefighters killed in a West Roxbury blaze.
City officials made drug and alcohol testing a top priority after an August blaze at the Tai Ho restaurant killed firefighters Paul Cahill and Warren Payne. The Herald has previously reported that sources briefed on the men’s toxicology results said Payne had traces of cocaine in his system and Cahill had a blood alcohol level of .27, three times the drunken driving threshold.
Firefighter union boss Ed Kelly backed up the findings in the report and criticized Boston Fire Commissioner Roderick Fraser for demanding the drug test results be included in the board of inquiry’s report. Kelly refused to comment about Gaston’s arrest yesterday.
“Our official comment is we don’t know all the facts of the case and we’re not going to make a comment till we do,’' Kelly said.
Copyright 2008 Boston Herald Inc.