Baltimore City Fire

Ninety-five percent of the city firefighters who participated in a no-confidence vote on Baltimore's fire chief disapprove of his leadership, union officials announced yesterday. Union leaders mailed paper ballots to 1,629 of their members, and said that 53 percent responded. Ninety-five percent - or 820 - of those who voted supported the no-confidence measure, officials said. "In order to create the type of morale problem that we have takes effort," said Capt. Stephan G. Fugate, president of the fire officers union at a news conference where the results were announced.

Mistakes and safety violations contributed to the death of a Baltimore firefighter as he battled a blaze on Macon Street in October, a draft investigative report says, revealing more problems for a department still struggling after a recruit died in February. The report, not yet made public but obtained by The Sun, says that firefighters in back of the house trained their hoses on the flames as Allan M. Roberts and others went in through the front. The fire turned water from the hoses into steam, increasing the heat inside the building.

He is a man whose life has been defined by racing from one emergency to the next during a two-decade career with the Baltimore City Fire Department and with his community volunteer fire company. His gung-ho style -- both as a paid firefighter and advocate for the volunteers -- helped him move up the ladder in both organizations, to acting division chief in charge of training in the city and as chief of the Riviera Beach Volunteer Fire Company. He became a local hero when he recovered the first of three missing bodies after a water taxi capsized in the Baltimore Harbor in 2004.

Kenneth Hyde Sr. is a decorated Baltimore City fire division chief who was named one of Baltimore magazine's Baltimoreans of the Year for his actions after a water taxi capsized, was dispatched to aid Hurricane Katrina victims and was declared a hero on the floor of Congress. However, an official investigation into his other role, as chief of the Riviera Beach Volunteer Fire Company in Anne Arundel County, has uncovered allegations of lax discipline at the firehouse. Investigators found evidence of sexual activity there, firefighters watching pornography on station computers and volunteers responding to calls after drinking alcohol.

Two city firefighters who ran into a burning building in April to rescue two boys before a hose was set up are to receive a national award today in New York. Albert Jason Boyd, 28, and Omar Shareef, 45, searched a burning apartment in Northwest Baltimore for a 4-year-old and his 3-year-old brother. Boyd rescued the 4-year-old, and Shareef pulled the 3-year-old from his bottom bunk, but the child was pronounced dead. The $10,000 award from Liberty Mutual insurance company - a grant that will be given to the Baltimore City Fire Department - comes during a week that city firefighters buried one of their own. Allan M. Roberts, 40, was killed Oct. 10 when he entered a burning rowhouse in Greektown.

Everybody over 40 has to take Motrin," said Mike Drummond, 44, an Ellicott City resident and coach of the Harkins Builders' dragon boat team, which is among 30 teams registered to compete in Catholic Charities' biennial dragon boat races Sept. 9. Mark Fida, 50, also of Ellicott City, is a paddler on the Baltimore City Fire Department's dragon boat. "I even took one of those 800-milligram `horse pills' for my back," he said. "It's not like rowing a canoe," he added. They and other Howard County residents are aching to take part in the grueling but exhilarating event at Baltimore's Inner Harbor.

Brothers killed driving home from wedding Two Carroll County brothers were killed when their speeding car jumped a guardrail and hit two trees as they returned from their sister's wedding early yesterday, police said. David Speicher Booth, 22, who was driving, and Michael Lippincott Booth, 35, both of the 3400 block of Green Meadow Lane in Union Mills, were killed instantly. Another passenger, Alyse I. Vanepps, 24, of Millville, Pa., was flown to Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, where she was in serious but stable condition, police said.

On December 12, 2005, THOMAS W. VANE; beloved son of Bernard and Joan Vane, loving father of Melissa Young and Sabrina Vane; cherished grandfather of Gavin Vane. Relatives and friends may call at the family owned AMBROSE FUNERAL HOME OF LANSDOWNE, 2719 Hammonds Ferry Road, on Thursday from 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M. where a funeral service will be held at the funeral hour of 8 P.M. In lieu of flowers donations may be made to the Baltimore City Fire Department's Wives and Orphans Fund, 1202 Ridgely Street, Baltimore, MD 21230.

Baltimore City Fire Chief William J. Goodwin Jr. said yesterday that most of the fires that claimed the lives of at least six people since Friday could have been prevented, and he attributed them broadly to "human error." Without commenting on the investigations or the causes of the fires, including an early Sunday blaze that killed three young boys in Southwest Baltimore, Goodwin said the department is emphasizing basic fire safety precautions to citizens as the winter approaches. "I've not seen a fire in the past week that wasn't preventable," Goodwin said.