Ex-Boston Firefighter-body builder feels betrayed

Ex-firefighter says he feels 'betrayed'

Former Boston firefighter Albert Arroyo, who has failed to convince Fire Department officials that he is disabled despite his body-building prowess, said yesterday that he feels betrayed by fellow firefighters who have not come to his defense.

"These are people that I thought were partners - that we go in fires and come out together - and [I] trust these people going in and out on the job," Arroyo said during an hour-long interview with WTKK-FM radio host Jimmy Myers, a friend of the firefighter. "It's a very difficult time for me right now. . . . I feel betrayed, in a way, after all these years."

Efforts yesterday to reach a representative of the Boston firefighters union for reaction to the comments were unsuccessful.

Joined by his Boston-based attorney Neil Osborne, Arroyo used the radio show to make his first public comments since video of him performing in a body-building competition - in which he placed eighth - imperiled his petition for a disability pension.

The disability application came after the Roslindale man reported falling on a staircase in a Jamaica Plain firehouse on March 21. A Boston neurologist, whose role in this and other firefighter disability claims has come under scrutiny, concluded Arroyo was "totally and permanently disabled." While his disability petition was pending before the Boston Retirement Board, Arroyo received his full salary tax-free. He was videotaped in the body-building competition on May 3.
click post title for more