Boston Fire Chief Steve E. Abraira resigned after butting heads with his command staff over the handling of the Boston Marathon bombings, officials told the Boston Globe.
Abraira, who had only been on the job for two years, was the first chief the Boston Fire Department had hired from outside of its union. Being an outsider probably helped exacerbate Abraira's problems as he came under fire from his 13 deputies, all of whom had risen through the ranks of the Boston Fire Department, according to the Globe.
In a letter to Boston Mayor Thomas Menino fire deputies complained that Abraira had failed to take command of the situation once he had arrived on the scene of the bombing where 3 people were killed and an additional 264 were injured. Abraira defended himself by saying that he followed "nationally accepted practice" at the scene, reports Reuters.
The letter from the deputies was very clear in its intent as it declared, "You can unequivocally consider this letter a vote of no confidence in Chief Abraira," reports The Huffington Post.
In his letter of resignation Abraira cites the letter, and the manner in which it was exposed to the public, as the key reason for his resignation.
"The baseless attacks by the Deputy Chiefs, especially their actions of making this a public debate by leaking their letter of April 26 to the press, has made it impossible for me to continue to do my job," the letter said.
Abraira, who previously had worked served in same position in Dallas and as an assistant in Miami, also cited his position as an outsider within the department as a contributing factor to his resignation.
"Your selection of me as Chief never had the support of a number of members of the Department who preferred that the Chief be selected from within the ranks of the Department itself," Abraira said. "I think it is also fair to say that unfortunately a vocal and aggressive minority of the members of the Department did not support our efforts."
The role of Chief will be taken over for the time being by Deputy Chief John Hasson. Hasson was one of the deputies who had signed the letter to Menino, reports The Huffington Post.
