A string of incidents involving firefighters and firewater must end, Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said yesterday.

Mr. Ravenstahl said he hadn't heard about some emerging allegations against firefighters, like the September arrest in Brentwood of Fire Capt. Donald E. Newham for driving under the influence. Nonetheless, he said, "the recent events are unacceptable. They've given the city a black eye ... They've given the firefighters that protect our city and do the right thing a black eye."

Drug testing protocols, now the subject of talks between the administration and firefighters union, should be finalized by month's end, he said. That still leaves "continuing concerns about alcohol ... We're hopeful that the union will be open to at least having a discussion, because this type of activity can't continue."

Union President Joe King could not be reached for comment.

Controller Michael Lamb said drug and alcohol policies should "be extended beyond just the Fire Bureau to other areas of city government.

"You've got guys driving garbage trucks and dump trucks and water vehicles," he noted, so there should be "some underlying level of trust that these people are not under the influence of alcohol or drugs."

Capt. Newham, 51, has not yet been tried on charges of a first DUI and disregarding traffic lanes. He told the Fire Bureau about "his problem," as Fire Chief Darryl Jones put it in an e-mail, and continues to work while in the Employee Assistance Program.

Capt. Newham could not be reached for comment.

Last month, Capt. Frank R. Becker Jr. was charged with drunken driving and drug possession. On Dec. 30, firefighter William M. White was arrested and accused by police of stealing a Rivers Casino security vehicle and fleeing from police, while drunk.

On Saturday night, firefighter Timothy P. Coyne was arrested and charged with drunkenness and assault in a South Side Flats incident. He is suspended pending a trial board process and his preliminary hearing is set for 8:30 a.m. today.

Also yesterday, media reports surfaced about yet another incident, this one involving an alleged theft at a Hazelwood home.

Dolores Mae Hunter, 80, accused firefighters from Engine Co. 13 of stealing $22,000 from her house on Sylvan Avenue while they fixed her furnace on Jan. 2. According to a police report, Ms. Hunter called 911 on Jan. 8 to report that her money, stored in a blue bag tucked among the rafters above the furnace, was missing.

She said yesterday that she called 911 on Jan. 2 after the pilot light on her furnace went out. She said five firefighters came to her house, and two went downstairs to fix the furnace. When the firefighters came back upstairs, she said, one of them was "singing" about having a party.

She said she noticed the money missing the next day and walked to the firehouse to try to confront someone, but said she got no response on either Jan. 3 or Jan. 4. On Jan. 8, she called 911 and police took a report.

Ms. Hunter's claims are being investigated by a Zone 4 plainclothes detective and the city's Office of Municipal Investigations.

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