By Laurel J. Sweet
The Boston Herald
BOSTON — Terrified by the prospect of surgery on his spine, former Boston firefighter Albert Arroyo testified yesterday he was driven to exercise obsessively — even on the clock — to blunt years of pain brought on by a back strain the pocket-size jake said he suffered in 2000 pulling a hose off Engine 7 in the Back Bay.
‘I never felt that pain before — never in my life,’ Arroyo, 49, of Roslindale told jurors. ‘Size does matter. It (the job) was very strenuous for me.’
It was precisely Arroyo’s devotion to bodybuilding - a sport in which the muscleman’s personal trainer testified this week he excelled so rapidly he was able to compete professionally — that has him on trial in U.S. District Court, accused of trying to defraud the city out of a tax-free accidental disability pension.
Dr. Michael Hamrock, who stepped down as the Boston Fire Department’s medical director in February, yesterday told jurors Arroyo’s complaints had been accommodated with a reassignment to pushing papers in fire prevention. When Arroyo approached him about retiring in 2008, Hamrock told him to ‘suck it up’ because, ‘You could get a nice check without doing a lot of difficult work.’
‘He was a bit upset at the time, saying this city owned his back,’ Hamrock testified.
Arroyo, facing up to 20 years behind bars if convicted, returns to the witness stand this morning. He griped to jurors that fire prevention ‘was a dumping ground’ for BFD’s overweight and medically challenged fire eaters. ‘I was just sitting around,’ he said.
At his first firehouse in 1986, Engine 5 in East Boston, Arroyo said with a nervous laugh that he was called ‘Julio,’ ‘Pedro’ and ‘Juan’ until, ‘It was just routine to me.’ With three weeks sometimes passing between calls, Arroyo said he packed on 60 pounds.
‘The meals in the firehouse were good — very good cooking,’ he said, ‘but it wasn’t helping me out.’
He switched to Engine 7, where once again, he suggested, he was the odd man out. ‘They loved to party,’ he said. ‘There were guys drinking throughout the job and doing other stuff I didn’t agree on (sic). I wanted to be safe.’
BFD spokesman Steve MacDonald told the Herald last night, ‘The department has zero tolerance for alcohol in the workplace for any employee of the fire department. It’s not allowed. If it’s called to our attention, we investigate.’
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