Image by Eric NorbergHands ache for days, wet hair smells like smoke for a week, snot is black for while and every time you close your eyes you are back in the fight. The best gear in the world cannot keep all of the smoke out of the hearts and mind of a firefighter, it’s […]

Things you need to know when you marry a medic:   Your spouse will change. Then change again. Just when you think you know who you are married to, once again they change. And sometimes the person they become is not the person you want to spend the rest of your life with. But don’t […]

My wife had been feeling strange for a year, didn’t know what to make of it, saw doctors, had tests and was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis  I had just started my career with The Providence Fire Department and was half way through the 42nd training academy when I got the news. They let me leave […]

It is difficult for me to expose what most of know, as reluctant as we may be to admit it, as truth. EMS is held together not by highly trained professionals willing, trained and eager to respond to medical emergencies , but rather by billing, revenue and opportunity to increase wealth. Those of us who […]

  By Michael Morse They are the best of calls, they are the worst of calls… Just about every firefighter I know would rather enter a fully involved, occupied fertilizer factory without a charged line than deliver a baby. Until, that is, they deliver one. Field deliveries are a bit unnerving, but they can be […]

By Michael Morse “If your job is so dangerous, why on earth would you let your kids follow in your footsteps?” Sometimes you have to let questions go unanswered. There are not enough words in all of the languages to express the pride, dread, worry, excitement, and validation felt when a child follows in your […]

Tradition… Bagpipes, the dress blues, stories of friendship, of sacrifice, of bravery, camaraderie and accomplishment; these are the things that drew me to the fire service. The bucket brigade, Jakes and Pikemen, then Laddermen and Hose Jockeys, horses in the barn pulling the steamers, dalmatians, bells and whistles, airhorns, sirens, flashing lights and everything that […]

Is it the day he puts in his papers?                   The last night in the station? Driving away from the station after the final shift? When he says, “I’m home,” and stays there?     Or is it when the fire in his heart diminishes and the […]

Uniform Stories used words from one of my articles and created this short film. https://www.firerescue1.com/health/articles/134918018-The-ugly-truth-about-firefighting-the-public-doesnt-understand/   Seeing what somebody else envisioned when reading my words is surreal. Here’s what I wrote that got the project underway: Much thanks to Rebecca at Uniform Stories.   We know what we see is real. We know how it […]

She spends hours at the gym, had her nails done, a pedicure, her hair is perfect and she spent a few hours getting ready for a fun night out dancing in Providence with her friends. She is beautiful, and looks fantastic, and people notice, and she doesn’t mind, as long as they are not creepy […]