Sunrise

Another sunrise. For some, anyway. A Cranston firefighter lays in his grave, buried yesterday after being shot in the back by his neighbor. While his family grieves, sleepless in their home another man is shot in the back on Atwells Avenue, a few miles away. He has bullets in both of his legs and a hole in his back but is still alive, conscious and in the trauma room at Rhode Island Hospital. My guess is he wasn't delivering newspapers when he was gunned down at dawn. Maybe he was an innocent victim, wrong place, wrong time. Probably not. He's alive, the firefighter is not. The senselessness of it all is overwhelming.

I'm finishing thirty-eight, can't wait to get home, an hour to go.

Gaspee Days!

The Gaspee Days are here! Click on the title to find out more. I'll be at the Gaspee Days Arts and Crafts festival on Sunday from 10:00-1:00 signing copies of Rescuing Providence. You can find me in the heart of Pawtuxet Village in front of Twice Told Tales, right next to the bridge. Hope to see you there!

Not Blogworthy

1050 Hrs. Rescue 2 (overtime) responds to a one family home in the west end for a ninety-two year old female having trouble breathing. Visiting nurse on scene states patients pulsox is 40. Impossible you say? So did I.

Arrived on scene to find ninety-two year old female in bathroom with the door closed. The visiting nurse informed us that the patient walked in to relieve herself before going to the hospital. "Is she breathing?" I asked. The nurse opened the door and said, "yes."

We took her to the hospital, I never did put her on our pulsox machine, the patient looked fine and stated she was having no difficulty breathing. Machines can't always be depended on, you have to trust the patient sometimes.

In my opinion, this post is definitely not blogworthy, but then, it is a good example of a lot of our calls.

Blogworthy

I take a lot of good natured ribbing from the guys on the job, they ask me during runs if this is "blogworthy," or "did I make the blog?" I honestly have no idea why some things make it here and others don't. I do make an attempt to not sensationalise other peoples tragedies, a lot of the more dramatic things that go on never make it here. Just for kicks, whatever happens next is officially "blogworthy." Stay tuned...

Lt. Pagano

I worked with Lt. James Pagano's father for a few years, back in the eighties. I didn't know Lt. Pagano, but if he was anything like his father, we have lost a true gentleman. Rest in Peace, Brother Pagano, my condolences to the family.



May 22, 2008
For slain firefighter, a line out the door at wake



CRANSTON -- They began lining up around 3 this afternoon outside the funeral home to say goodbye to slain Cranston firefighter Lt. James A. Pagano -- firefighters in dress blues and white gloves and solemn faces, friends and family.

Firefighters from Cranston, Providence, Bristol, Coventry and elsewhere have come to pay respects at the wake for Pagano, who the police allege was shot and killed Sunday by next-door neighbor Nicholas Gianquitti, 40. Gianquitti, a former Providence police officer, is now charged with murder.

Pagano "was a great guy, the ultimate family guy," said James Moore, who retired as a Cranston deputy fire chief in 2002 and worked with Pagano at Station 3 for several years.

At first there were two lines to get into Nardolillo Funeral Home, with firefighters in one and friends and family in another. Shortly before 5 p.m., about 100 people were waiting to go inside.

The full Cranston command staff and the chief are inside with Pagano's family.

An American flag flew at half-staff.

His funeral will be held tomorrow, starting from the funeral home at 8:45 a.m. More about the services and an online guestbook.

From The Journal: More about Pagano and the shooting.

Out with the Old, In with the...Old."

We finally put the new red truck in service yesterday. There was a big party, steamship round, open bar, Billy Joel did a tribute to the men and women of Rescue 1 and to top it off, Angelina Jolie, dressed in a stunning Armani christened the new truck by smashing a bottle of Dom Perignon right before we embarked on our first run.

The "new car" scent lasted ten minutes, quickly replaced by the "old rescue" aroma of one of our regulars. He called from a pay phone half a mile from Rhode Island Hospital, said he was "sick." The smell of piss, alcohol and vomit, mixed with a months worth of filth quickly filled our new environment. Oh well.

DOA

He died last night, fell off the side of his bed, tipped a lamp over and died on the floor. He was an old man, from the looks of things lived a simple life. His possessions were few, modest furniture, not a lot of clothes, just the necessities. We stood there after pronouncing him dead and waited for the police Sergeant, five of us, strangers to the dead man, talking about our weekend, our kids, our future.

His grandson arrived, walked past us and kneeled by his grandfathers side, sobbing.
Another grandson ran into the room and joined them next to the bed. The phone rang, another family member entered the room. The police arrived, we backed out. As we were leaving I saw another young man running toward the house, frantic.

He may not have had many worldly possessions, but from the look of the people he left behind, he knew how to live.

Dumbfellas

A couple of nineteen year olds thought it would be a good idea to come to South Providence and settle a score with somebody. They put on their wife-beaters, shined up their gold jewelery, slicked back their hair and rode into town looking to bust some heads. I think the theme from the Soprano's was playing when they rolled in. A little while later I drove them out of the hood in the rescue bloodied and bruised, minus their car. They were lucky to get out alive.

"People came from everywhere," they told me. "There must have been thirty of them."

I guess they haven't been watching the news, every night there have been multiple stabbings and shots fired.

Tuesday Morning Madness

Tuesday morning and things are off to a great start. At 0700 hrs a 46 year old guy had his wife drive him to the ER at RIH because of chest pains. They made it to the parking lot and couldn't get any further. We were called and found a daiphoretic patient in obvious distress. We got an IV going, put him on 0xygen, aspirin and nitro, ran an EKG and brought him in. Turns out he was having an anterior wall MI. Thirty minutes later he was in the cath lab where they opened his blocked artery.

0830 a twenty-six year old mother of two was approached on Messer Street by a woman looking to buy some crack. The mother of two was familiar with the drug seeker but had never spoken to her. She tried to get away, the drug seeker went into a frenzy and stabbed and sliced the mother. She's in the trauma room at Rhode Island Hospital, lacerations to her face, arms and a stab wound to her abdomen. Strange day so far.

Sportsmanship

This kind of thing makes my day. Thanks to the folks at Anchor Rising for bringing it to my attention.

Extreme Makeover

Sometimes it's good to take a time out and enjoy the good things life has to offer. Last night was one of those nights. A few pizza's, a couple of dips with some nachos, soda's, beer, wine and my family sitting in my new family room watching ABC's Extreme Makeover, Rhode Island Edition. It seems some TV executive finally got it right; instead of spending millions of dollars creating and producing mindless drivel that does nothing but fritter time away from a bored audience, Ty Pennington and crew find people in need of a break, get the community involved, muster up as much positive energy they can and make the world a better place, not only for the deserving people who are the center of all the attention, but everybody who helped as well. And don't forget the audience, I sat with my wife, Cheryl, Danielle, Brittany and Eric for an hour watching the show and loved every second of it. The house that they built is a mile away from my own or I probably never would have known about this show.

I have an EMT student riding the rescue today. Turns out his day job is a CVS Samaritan, one of the guys that ride the highway at rush hour helping motorists in need of a fixed flat tire, gasoline or whatever else to get them going or get off the highway to a safe place. He says he loves his job. I think he's kind of like a mini version of the Extreme Makeover crew, only on the highway. Come to think of it, I'm kind of like the Extreme Makeover crew, only in a Rescue.

Title?

I'm sitting here waiting for the first draft of Rescuing Providence Part II to print and realized I don't have a title. I thought of Rescuing Providence, Another Day, or Rescuing Providence, 38 Hours but I really don't like either of those.

Rescuing Providence, the first book was started in 2004 and covered a thirty-four hour shift. The original idea was to write about a week on the rescue but that was too long, according to a literary agent who ultimately rejected the story. I cut it in half and made the first part longer and I think better. Part II is the other half of the week, Friday night, Saturday morning and Saturday night. Thirty-eight hours, thirty calls and all that goes in between. It has taken me well over a year to put it together, (all of this blogging takes time!) and hopefully will be out early next year, if all goes as planned.

Thanks everybody who stops here, it helps knowing people are interested. Suggestions for a title to the next book greatly appreciated.

Michael