By Jill King Greenwood
The Pittsburgh Tribune Review
PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Fire Chief Darryl Jones is exasperated by all the recent arrests of off-duty firefighters for alcohol-related crimes.
Three days after police charged a firefighter with attacking a man after a night of drinking in the South Side, Jones yesterday said city officials might have to develop a “zero-tolerance” policy for dealing with how employees act in public when drinking.
“We live in a fishbowl and if you can’t handle that, maybe you need to be in another line of work,” Jones said. “Yes, there is a problem. We are aware of the problem and we are taking the problem very, very seriously.”
Firefighter Timothy Coyne, 23, of Lawrenceville is among at least four city firefighters charged since November with alcohol-related crimes. He was suspended without pay for 30 days, pending a trial board hearing on charges he assaulted a man early Saturday.
Jones acknowledged the previously unreported November arrest of Capt. Donald Newham, 51, on a drunken-driving charge in Brentwood. Court records show Newham waived a preliminary hearing and is scheduled for formal arraignment Jan. 19.
On Wednesday, Jones suspended fire Capt. Frank R. Becker Jr., 38, after learning police arrested Becker for drunken driving and drug possession in December.
On Dec. 30, Pittsburgh police charged firefighter William White, 50, of the North Side with stealing a Rivers Casino security truck, drunken driving and spitting at a police officer trying to arrest him.
None of the four firefighters could be reached for comment.
Jones said he referred a Jan. 2 complaint from a Hazelwood woman against four Engine 13 firefighters to the city’s Office of Municipal Investigations, which reviews complaints of misconduct against city employees.
The woman, who is in her 80s, called 911 to report the pilot light on her furnace was out, said police spokeswoman Diane Richard. The firefighters responded to help her, re-lit the pilot light and were back on the truck within eight minutes, reports indicated.
Six days later, the woman said $22,000 in a bag stuffed in ceiling rafters above her furnace was missing, Richard said. She blamed the firefighters.
Jones said the fire bureau has rules regarding off-duty behavior, including prohibitions on “conduct unbecoming of a firefighter.” But, he said, “if these problems persist, we’re probably headed in the direction of having to talk about having a zero-tolerance policy against behavior while drinking in public.”
The city expects to start random drug testing for firefighters this year, and under the firefighters’ contract can fire those who test positive for drugs.
Mayor Luke Ravenstahl’s spokeswoman, Joanna Doven, said he ordered Public Safety Director Michael Huss to work with the fire union to put drug testing in place by month’s end. Joe King, president of International Association of Fire Fighters Local No. 1, did not return a call for comment.
Jones said 99 percent of firefighters are “hard-working, serious and determined people who would never do anything to embarrass themselves or the fire bureau.”
“But it’s that 1 percent causing the problems. They’re the first ones to yell ‘I’m a firefighter’ when they get into trouble, hoping they will get some professional courtesy,” he said. “Well, if you’re not behaving in a professional, courteous manner, you don’t deserve it.”
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