I wrote this shortly after peeling one of our regular Street People off of Broad Street and finding a little flower crushed beneath him… Green tendrils of life push through the cracks in the cement, and reach for the sky, oblivious of the litter and broken glass surrounding it. Somehow it thrives, and avoids being […]

  Another Rhode Island Firefighter ended his life this morning. That makes six this year in the smallest state in the union. Six. Existing in isolation in a station full of people is painful reality for some of us, and the last thing we will do is let anybody know. Could any of these tragedies […]

Some thoughts on overdose and narcan for people not immersed in the opioid so called epidemic because I just passed a billboard advertising narcan at your local pharmacy. The slogan said “Overdose does not mean it’s over.” Addiction is no picnic, I’ve been clean and sober for 19 years next month, and I understand the […]

By Michael Morse

 It didn’t take long for the first call of the day. The tones went off 10 minutes after we relieved the night crew. “Rescue 1 and Engine 13, Respond to New York Avenue for a report of a man not breathing.” “Rescue 1 on the way.” We turned the corner and approached a single-family home. […]

By Michael Morse You did your duty, so it’s time to get on with the rest of your life. Funny thing is, for the rest of your life, you will look back at the years you spent responding to other people’s emergencies with a touch of sadness. Letting go of the greatest job in the […]

Yup. I said that; “It’s a good thing I blew my back out or the job would have killed me.” My truck was running 5000 plus calls a year, I was working every overtime shift I could, my brain had stopped functioning properly and my outside life was in tatters. My inside life wasn’t much […]