May 17--Boston fire Commissioner Roderick Fraser has sounded off against his 13 deputy chiefs, calling them a "bunch of dinosaurs" for resisting change and "unprofessional" for releasing a letter to the media saying they had no confidence in their chief for not taking command during the chaos after the marathon bombings.
"I think this whole thing, in my opinion, is a revolt against change by a bunch of dinosaurs. They don't run the department. I do," Fraser told city councilors yesterday at a Ways and Means Committee hearing, adding that the department's response protocol is in line with national standards.
As first reported by bostonherald .com Tuesday night, 13 deputy chiefs recently fired off a scathing letter to Mayor Thomas M. Menino voicing "no confidence" in Fire Chief Steve Abraira for not taking command at the deadly Boston Marathon bombings, as well as other fire scenes.
Boston's long-standing policy has been for the highest-ranking officer to take charge at a scene, but Abraira said Tuesday he changed that policy to comply with "national standards." He also said his deputies' job is to handle on-scene operations and said he was satisfied with the marathon response.
Yesterday, he told councilors that by the time he arrived at the scene of the April 15 bombings, there were no more victims.
"By the time I got there, we had things well in hand," he said.
He told the Herald after the hearing that it took him about 30 minutes to get to the scene.
Fraser backed his chief's delegation of duties.
"Personally, with my experience, especially my over 20 years in the Navy, I would be appalled, embarrassed if my superior ever, ever took command away from me at any incident," Fraser told councilors. "It never happened in my career. I would be flabbergasted to think that I can't handle what I'm assigned to handle."
Councilor Frank Baker and others took exception to the commissioner's characterization of the deputies as "dinosaurs," forcing Fraser to later apologize at the hearing.
"It was a little insulting," Baker said. "The operation went perfect. ... Those dinosaurs were obviously doing something correct."
Fraser said he did not mean to insult his deputies.
"I was a little heated," he said. "I apologize."
But he stood by his remarks blasting the deputy chiefs for not raising their concerns with him first before going to the media.
"This was handled, in my view, extremely unprofessional," he said. "If they had concerns, I have an open-door policy. The deputies could come see me any time."
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