"If that's the case, then all of the other jurisdictions are doing something wrong, " said Miami Beach Fire Marshal Sonia Machen, who said she has been following a more recent state fire code. "We'll all have to consult with our attorneys on Monday."

Regardless of the code, Miami-Dade firefighters would get the work anyway - it's required by their union contract.

Van Meter, the Miami-Dade fire-watch supervisor, insists that MDFR's policy is safer. "Certainly a trained firefighter is better than an untrained security guard, " he said.

The department's policy is also more lucrative for the firefighters who get the work.

On 12 occasions at the West Dade library, firefighters logged at least 24 hours straight on fire watch - overtime that was paid on top of their regular hours. Lt. Hector Noel did it five times, once for a full 48 hours. Noel earned nearly $10,000 at the library in just 10 days, and $17,250 in all.

MDFR officials concede it's hard to believe that firefighters remain awake, as required, on such long shifts with very little to do. But they say there is nothing they can do about it.

"Prevent it? How do you prevent someone from sleeping?" asked Deputy Chief Al Suarez.

Often, the department charges extra for protection from high-ranking officers. Four different captains worked shifts at the library, including Van Meter himself, at $86 an hour. Capt. McGregor Sheppard worked a Saturday shift there for $102.49 an hour, fire department records show.

Tampa Cargo, a South American airline that specializes in imported flowers, paid up to $88 an hour for fire lieutenants to watch its warehouse at MIA last summer.

"They do exactly the same thing" as the ordinary firefighters, said Salazar, the airline's finance director. "They sit in the car and wait for something to happen."

MDFR charged overtime for the entire four-month fire watch at Tampa Cargo - which is a private company - because it sits on county land. Union rules require overtime "at county facilities, " Lorenzo wrote.

The fire department sends high-ranking officers to do fire watch only when their expertise is required or when there are no lower-ranking volunteers, Van Meter said. Any county firefighter, regardless of rank, can volunteer for the duty, and a computer selects the one with the fewest fire-watch hours, he said.

QUESTIONS AT AIRPORT

Nowhere has fire watch come under sharper scrutiny than at the airport, where county officials have questioned the number of hours logged by firefighters.

On Jan. 3, 2002, former fire inspector Norman Hepburn was paid for a 12-hour fire watch in MIA's Concourse D, records show. But investigators from the county Office of the Inspector General determined that he also billed taxpayers overtime for inspections performed in Concourse G during the same shift.

Hepburn and another inspector, Robert Cleary, were accused of inflating their overtime and arrested on 75 counts of fraud, theft and official misconduct. Hepburn died of cancer earlier this year while awaiting trial. Cleary has pleaded not guilty.

One airport employee brought concerns about fire-watch hours to Assistant County Manager Carlos Bonzon when he was MIA's interim director.

"We had guys who were practically working around the clock, " Bonzon said. "How can a human being be working so many hours and be effective? How can he be awake? That was [the] concern."