I WISH YOU COULD...

I wish you could see the sadness of a business man as his

livelihood goes up in flames or that family returning home,

only to find their house and belongings damaged or destroyed.

I wish you could know what it is to search a burning bedroom

for trapped children, flames rolling above your head,

your palms and knees burning as you crawl, the floor

sagging under your weight as the kitchen beneath you burns.

I wish you…

Fireman's Tears



The alarm rang, as it had so many times before.

He was the first of the fireman up and out,

Awakened from his bed at the station

By the clanging of the bell.

As Engine 3 pulled out of the bay,

Dispatch paged another station.

And all the firemen aboard the truck

Were tensed with anticipation

"It's gonna be a nice 'un, boys,"

He said as he donned his gear.

And the young bucks smiled at him…

Firefighter's Heart

If you look deep into a Firefighters heart,

you will find they're a machine with every working part.

In there you will find there's not much of a difference, and when they're on a job there is no interference.

The parts inside them that you will find,

are enough to make your head spin and even blow you mind.

They have LOVE for everything his family, GOD, and you, and when something goes wrong he knows just what to do.

They…

I took the week off from work (both the department and the task force) just to spend some time at home and take the kids to the beach. Going to the beach from my house involves loading up my folding cart and a half-ton of crap (my needs are in the cooler, but I have a wife and three girls, so picture the load), and walking about two blocks. Our home has been here at the beach for over ten years now and yet my only visit to the ocean's edge would be on Memorial Day Weekend and on Labor Day…

It's tough to dump so much effort into a stranger and have the end result come out the way it did and the way it does so many times. It's tough to watch the families in such crises and pain for their loved one, on our knees in the their living room, using everything in our bag of tricks, we know in the back of our minds what the outcome is going to be but we still try, we push that thought down and as futile of an effort as it may be...we still try, and it still…

We just finished with a training fire today. I hope to have a slideshow up and running within the next few days.

Indian Creek 28

8.13.2007: Today is the day of many first's for me. The first day I delivered a baby and the first day I turned 31 years old, my birthday too. So what are the odds of a medic delivering a baby on their birthday? I have no idea, it truly has not all caught up with me today, but everything went text book and the prize, a baby boy who weighed 7lbs 5 oz, at 17 inches long.

PS: The mother was pissed I did not have an epidural readily available.

PSS: My partner in this crime…