By Michael Morse One important thing I learned about the fire service and the brother (sister) hood; you get exactly what you put into this job. Expecting miracles without doing the work is a fool’s game. Expecting something as magical as true brotherhood to form between strangers thrust together by a common vocation is ridiculous. […]

“On September 9th 2018, our lives were changed in a blink of an eye. Our father Captain Vincent John D’Ambra of the Providence, Rhode Island Fire Department was the victim of a horrific motorcycle accident which led to a traumatic spinal cord injury that we are now learning will change our lives forever. He is […]

Dan Rinaldi does a lot more than make great chili. . . It was hot, blistering hot, the sun seemed to be inside the earth’s atmosphere, pounding her inhabitants with unrelenting heat. The A/C unit in Rescue 1 was useless, I was miserable, my partner was miserable, everybody was miserable. Everybody but Dan Rinaldi. We […]

Rest in peace Senator McCain “Hello Senator Reed,” I said without considering that maybe he preferred to be left alone. It was too late to take it back so I pressed on. “Don’t you have people to do this stuff?” He chuckled at that, and replied with a little grin, “I sure do. Me!” We […]

By Michael Morse “When the tones go off, and the call is for an EMS crew requesting assistance, know this: the folks who called for help are listening for your sirens, and are breathing a little easier knowing that the cavalry is on the way.”   https://www.fireengineering.com/articles/2018/08/engine-company-ems-the-cavalry.html  

She sat in her chair, looking out the window, waiting for the end. Thirty-seven years old, less than a hundred pounds, tired, depressed and dying. She wanted to stay at home, but her condition required a trip to the hospital, perhaps her last. Stone cold eyes greeted me, eyes that had given up the fight […]

The rest of the world might have gone nuts, but that is no reason for us to join them. Society is embracing the idea of questioning the police, as if the police were created to harass them. Showing disrespect to a uniformed police officer is a badge of honor these days; street cred gained through […]

“We are the professionals on an emergency scene; it is we whom people depend on. We are not struggling to find the right words while filled with worry; we are simply doing our job to the best of our abilities. Communicating with our patients is the first step toward properly treating them. It is not […]

I don’t know if people like me–people who are trained to respond and are confident in their ability to do so–see mass casualties differently than most. When I see images from the latest disaster, terrorist attack, or mass shooting flash across my screen, my eyes are drawn to the rescuers, not the victims. I focus […]

“It’s going to be a scorcher!” say the off-duty platoon members as their reliefs file in one by one on a July morning in Providence. They are off to the beach or to their air-conditioned homes, grateful that fate was kind and the schedule demons favored them–this time. “Attention Engine 2, Engine 12, Engine 7, […]