A year punctuated by bad behavior in the FDNY has ended with more firefighters suspended from their jobs than in the previous two years combined, and more than in any of the past five years.
The surge in suspensions ? 63 in 2004, up from 25 in 2003 and 23 the year before ? was fueled by a series of outlandish incidents and a strong uptick in drunken-driving arrests, which totaled 45 by year's end, up from 28 in '03.
Not all DWI arrests led to suspensions, the department said, but about 40 of the suspensions came from arrests of one type or another. Another nine suspensions were drug-related, and the rest were from insubordination issues.
In the face of the firehouse misbehavior, FDNY Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta announced in February a "zero tolerance" policy toward illegal activity and instituted random drug testing.
"The department has taken a stronger stance with respect to some behavior both on and off duty than was taken previously," said FDNY spokesman Frank Gribbon.
"It's all about accountability and responsibility in the ranks."
That tougher stance riled the Uniformed Firefighters Association, which says it reflects a lack of compassion in a post-9/11 world, where the Bravest are still dealing with trauma.
"Look at the random drug-testing policy," said Phil McArdle, the union's health and safety officer. "We're the only [fire department] in the country that doesn't have any rehabilitation component to the drug testing. How compassionate is that?"
But it was the bad seeds who grabbed headlines last year, beginning with a booze-filled New Year's Eve brawl at the Engine 151 station house in Staten Island, when firefighter Michael Silvestri bashed fellow firefighter Robert Walsh with a chair, putting him in a coma.
January saw two firefighters, in uniform, drinking and singing "Born to Run" at an East Village karaoke bar they were supposed to be inspecting.
A firefighter who injured 13 people in a February smash-up allegedly tested positive for cocaine.
A drunken fireman posed as a police officer in April, ordered a car to pull over in Staten Island, and then punched one of the people in the car, authorities said.
And in August, a now-notorious sex scandal erupted at The Bronx's "Animal House" fire station, after a Staten Island woman claimed three firemen there raped her. She later recanted and said the sex was consensual.
