By Michael Morse A friend died unexpectedly at home. He was a year younger than me. I hadn’t seen him for a while, and that was okay with both of us. We have a lot of people we call friends; people we meet along our journey, people who are friends for a while, friends of […]

My cousin Caroline, a teacher at the Broad Street School, right in the heart of my first-in district, asked me if I could visit her kindergarten class with the fire truck. She thought her students would love it. I agreed, and we set a date and time. I explained that I had transferred from Engine […]

I miss getting to work an hour early, picking up the paper from the ramp, the apparatus floor ghostly quiet, entering the boot room, smoke mixed with sweat and leather, gear lined up, squared away, waiting for bodies to fill it. I miss signing the accountability sheet, seeing who was already there, climbing the stairs […]

I miss getting to work an hour early, the apparatus floor ghostly quiet, the boot room waiting, smoke mixed with sweat and leather, gear lined up, squared away, waiting for bodies to fill it. I miss signing the accountability sheet, seeing who was already there, climbing the stairs and entering the day room, hot coffee […]

Life is short. When we are kids our days seem endless, and days and weeks crawl by. As we age, and count our time on earth in years, then decades, we begin to see just how quickly it all passes. In our youth, we are fascinated with possibilities; anything is possible, and the world is […]

There’s something about Fire Chaplains. . .   ‘He showed no fear at all as he made straight for the relics inside the Cathedral, and made sure they were saved. He deals with life and death every day, and shows no fear.’ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6927345/Fire-chaplain-helped-Bataclan-victims-entered-burning-Notre-Dame-save-Crown-Thorns-relic.html

By Michael Morse Before you know it, your career will be over. You may make it 10, 20, 30, or 40-plus years; it matters not, it goes by in a blink. I made it to 25, spent more time than I care to recall complaining about this or that, the shift coming in or the […]

Twenty years ago I thought I would do this job forever. I had a dream; work in Providence till I was sixty and they threw me out, then move to somewhere where they have a volunteer fire department and put my experience to good use. The department offered a 50% pension after twenty years, we […]

I’m a lot like most firefighters I know; we work. We didn’t become firefighters because we were looking for the easy way. The fire service has been very good to me. I put a lot into it, took every opportunity to advance, got the certifications and commensurate pay raises. Overtime was abundant. That was a […]

It’s 0600 hrs., the sun remains hidden, waiting under the horizon to swallow the darkness. thirteen hours into an endless thirty eight hour shift I’m not sure if my day has begun or my night has ended In a forth floor apartment contractions start Five children, all under five years old wake to screams and […]