BOSTON — Thirteen out of 14 deputy fire chiefs have signed a letter of “no confidence” in Boston’s fire chief’s handling of the Boston Marathon bombings.
The Boston Globe reported that the letter about Fire Chief Steve Abraira was sent to Mayor Thomas Menino’s office on April 26.
“You can unequivocally consider this letter a vote of no confidence in Chief Abraira,” the deputy chiefs wrote, according to the report.
The Boston Herald reported that the letter blasted Abraira as a “ghost fire chief” who “never announced his arrival on the radio or assumed any command authority” during the twin bombings on April 15.
“At a time when the City of Boston needed every first responder to take decisive action, Chief Abraira failed to get involved in operational decision-making or show any leadership,” the letter stated, according to the report.
The Boston Globe reported that Abraira fired back in a phone interview on Tuesday saying that the command staff had control of the scene when he arrived and that he acted appropriately.
“When I got there I was comfortable with what was going on,” Abraira told The Globe. “...The nationally accepted practice is that you only take command [as chief] if there’s something going wrong or if you can strengthen the command position or if it’s overwhelming for the incident commander, and none of those things were in fact happening.”
Mayoral candidate Michael Ross said the deputy chief’s raised “serious issues,” and he plans to consult them to “gain a better understanding of the concerns raised,” according to the report.
When asked if Ross approves of Abraira’s job performance, he said it was “too soon to make that determination,” according to the report.