Everybody Gets Their Fifteen Minutes Of Fame...

even when it isn't really wanted. Having a background in journalism, albeit an amateur one, I do understand what the "real" story is. For a journalist, the real story here is about a woman who, although she has no ties to any fire department and nothing to gain from her efforts, is taking on the task of shooting a documentary about the job of firefighting... blah, blah, blah.

It's funny - I look at my work the same way that firefighters look at their work - I'm just doing my job. It's nothing spectacular, nothing to make such a big deal about. I just got pissed off that no one really understands what firefighters do and all that their job encompasses. I got mad at people saying stupid crap like, "oh, they have it easy... four days on, four days off, hanging around the station..."

NO!!!! That is NOT what really goes on!!!

There is serious ABUSE of the 911 system in MANY cities and towns. People treat it like a taxi service. "I have a hangnail and it's killing me. Take me to the hospital. Yeah, I know it's three o'clock in the morning, but still..." It's maddening. So, rather than sitting here and just kevetching about it being maddening, I decided to DO something about it.

I'm not impressive because I decided to do this. I'm just a person who understands what firefighters deal with and I think that everyone should understand it and respect it.

So, the fact that Rita Lussier of the Providence Journal and Laurie Johnson of the Warwick Beacon and Johnston Sunrise wanted to write about the project, I thought, "cool - people will know about it and start looking for it on television. The more, the merrier." Then I had the interviews with them and by their questions, it dawned on me that their story was about me, not the project.

Do I refuse? No - because despite the fact that I feel totally weird about having these people ask me so many questions about myself and why I'm doing this, I know that it's still bringing attention to the project itself. If people know, they'll look for it. It's a catch 22, really.

It's bizarre - this is about my Everyday Heroes. It's not about me. It's about getting people to understand and respect firefighters. It's about telling their story and making people realize that it's not just firefighting that they do. The training, the rescue calls, the extracations, the cooking, the cleaning, the having to buy new appliances and mattresses that the Cities don't provide... it's about the mundane stuff and the fact that every single time the bell tips, God only knows what's going to happen. They could get hurt just driving to or from a call. Poorly maintained vehicles could cause accidents. It's about learning to appreciate the fact that we have these people, willing to risk their lives for us at any given moment.

It's about my firefighters, NOT me.

Having said that, I feel these pieces should be added to my blog. After all, it is a chronicle of what's been happening while I'm shooting the film.

Where There’s Fire, There’s a Hard-working Bunch
05/23/2007 - by Rita Lussier

After working all day at Borders bookstore in Garden City, Cranston, Erin Blackman will be up all night riding along on Engine 8 in Providence. There might be an accident or a fire, a domestic dispute or an explosion. Maybe even all of the above. There’s just no way to know.

Several years ago, when firefighters couldn’t agree on a contract with the City of Providence (they still haven’t — the standoff is at day 1,049), Erin was surprised at how many people didn’t really understand the job they do day in and day out. There is a misperception, she says, that firefighters just sit around the station playing cards and watching TV, waiting for the bell to ring.

And then it hit her. She has a digital video camera. She has friends at television stations. “What am I doing just sitting here?”

Well, Erin is no longer just sitting here, there or anywhere. When she’s not working, she’s riding along on fire trucks, spending time in fire stations, interviewing firefighters and putting it all together in a documentary that’s currently titled: Everyday Heroes: A Walk Into the Fire.

She wants to make this point very clear. The film she’s working on is not political in any way. As Erin told me, you understand what she does at the bookstore because you buy books there. You understand what a bank teller does because you go into the bank to cash checks and make deposits. But unless your house goes up in flames, you really don’t have any firsthand knowledge of a firefighter’s job.

Well, if Erin has anything to say about it, you soon will.

At first blush, it’s surprising that a 35-year-old woman who lives in Johnston would want to spend her spare time this way. But truth to tell, if fate hadn’t thrown her a curve ball, Erin might have become a firefighter herself.

From what she tells me, the calling runs in her family. Her grandfather, Edward Conway, was a firefighter in Providence for 30 years until he fell off a fire truck and landed in the middle of Branch Avenue. If Erin hadn’t suffered a bad accident when she was 16 that left her with an injured back, she might have followed his example.

But if there are any lingering regrets about the obstacles life has thrown her way, they’re now gone. The documentary project has given her the chance to not only experience the life she once dreamed about, but also to put her perspective as a lay person to good use. What she sees for the first time through the camera and how she relates that in her film will help those of us who are unfamiliar with the firefighter’s job to view it in a new light.

As often happens when things are meant to be, the pieces fell quickly into place for Erin. The Providence Fire Department granted permission for filming, and she’s received a lot of assistance from Providence firefighter Jay Fabrizio, whom she credits as co-creator. In addition, she’s relying on the talents of Fran Paliotta for still photography, Brian Bucacci for editing and Michael R. Shipp for music, to get the documentary ready to air by next fall.

What has surprised Erin the most about her adventure so far is the “sheer level of exhaustion that occurs from the adrenaline rush you experience when the bell tips. You have to jump and fly – get yourself to the truck as fast as possible and head out to the scene. When you go through that five, six, twelve times in a ten- or twelve-hour period, it takes a toll on your body.”

Although she never expected to gain anything for herself out of doing this, Erin tells me she already has. The way the firefighters have welcomed her into their circle, she says, has given her “an incredible sense of belonging, protection and kinship that I’ve never found with any other group.”

It’s the kind of camaraderie that must come along with a job where at any given moment you might have to take A Walk Into the Fire. I can’t imagine how that feels but, thanks to Erin, next fall I will. We all will.

For the Moment
Rita Lussier



A World in Which Every Workday Risks Life and Limb
By LAURIE JOHNSON

Carol Channing had it all wrong.

Firemen, not diamonds, are a girl’s best friend, according to Erin Blackman of Johnston, who’s currently filming a documentary on firefighters.

“The general public is not aware of all they do,” said Blackman, “so I picked up a video camera to prove it.”

The working title of Blackman’s project is “Everyday Heroes: A Walk Into the Fire.”

She started filming last November and hopes to complete the 60-minute tribute by early this winter. Blackman’s friend, Fran Paliotta of Fran Paliotta Photography in Johnston, is helping in the effort by offering cutting-edge still shots of Blackman’s subjects.

“It’s strictly a labor of love; I’m not getting paid for it,” said Blackman, who at age 36 wistfully recalls her dream of becoming a firefighter. Injuries from a car accident at age 16 forced her to look in other directions. She finds it ironic that her grandfather, Edward Conway, was forced to retire after 20 years on the Providence Fire Department when he fell off the back of a fire truck and injured his back in 1951.

The lion’s share of Blackman’s work to date has been done with the Providence Fire Department. Blackman totes a camera on ride-alongs onboard engines and rescue trucks. She signs a waiver each time, renouncing all rights to sue in case of an injury. The fire and rescue runs Blackman has documented have been fairly routine ones. She plans other ride-alongs including one with a ladder company. There will also be stints at the fire dispatch desk and with fire-prevention officers, who investigate the cause of a blaze.

Blackman said she treasures her time spent with Providence’s Engine Company 8, housed on Messer Street, whose members went out of their way to make her feel like one of them, she says. She learned that when firefighters assess a scene, it goes far beyond the rescue call.

“These firemen really know their neighborhood,” said Blackman enthusiastically.

During her ride-along, the firefighters would point out landmarks around a fire scene plus name the kids watching near the trucks while the firemen worked. There was even an elderly woman who brought the firemen cookies.

Another of Blackman’s experiences came courtesy of the Johnston Fire Department. The controlled burn of a house on
Peck Hill Road earlier this year made for some very fiery scenes for Blackman’s documentary.

Johnston firefighter Paul Brazenor recalls Blackman’s enthusiasm that day.

“She caught a nice little blast of heat when one of the walls of the house came down,” he said.

Blackman filmed as firefighters set up a water curtain to protect nearby houses and woods.

Brazenor, 36, is a school chum of Blackman’s. Both attended the Oliver Hazard Perry Middle School in Johnston. When the opportunity came along, Brazenor, who still lives in Johnston, was only too glad to let Blackman do some filming. He wishes there were more people like Erin who understood the pressures that firefighters face.

“Yes, we do feel unappreciated, especially in light of what town councilors have been saying about us,” said Brazenor, referencing recent news reports about the department’s expensive overtime budget. Johnston firefighters have been working without a contract since 2004.

“Because of overtime, we do have some guys making over a $100,000 a year,” he said. “Sure it’s good money, but people forget we are working [extra] to earn it and that means time away from our families.”

“Just because we have beds at the firehouse doesn’t mean we sleep at night. The calls can and do come anytime,” Brazenor added.

“The sheer exhaustion your body deals with is incredible,” Blackman said with a sigh, talking about one-on-one interviews with individual firefighters – scenes she refers to as intense.

She marvels as subject after subject responds with the perfunctory, “it’s my job,” when asked how they have the courage to enter a burning building.

“I don’t think we are heroes,” said Brazenor stiffly, but then with warm pride noted the accomplishments of his late uncle, Cpt. Robert Tessier, who retired from the Providence Fire Department after a 20-year career.

“You know, it isn’t always fire that turns out to be the most dangerous part of the job,” said Blackman. “There’s stress and exposure to chemicals. On the rescue trucks, there’s the constant worry about needle sticks, airborne diseases and TB.”

That’s why Brazenor, who’s in his 12th year fighting fires in Johnston, calls it a slap in the face for firefighters to have to pay for health insurance.

“The fact is we risk our lives every day on the job,” he said.

Blackman, a longtime firefighting advocate, hopes her work will lead to more respect for firefighters and better working conditions for them so, in her own words, “these insane lack-of-contract issues will stop.” Channel 36 has already offered to work with Blackman to bring her project to fruition.

I HATE It When They Get Hurt...

Thursday, 23 Aug 2007

I was supposed to be riding with Lt. Michael Morse on Rescue 1 tomorrow night, Friday, 24 August. It was a rather cool week, nasty weather and Friday is supposed to be the first hot day of the week. Surely the night will be chaotic with people trying to salvage their last few days of summer.

But…

One of the most difficult things about having friends who are firefighters is the frequency with which they get injured. It’s horrible when I watch the news sometimes… “Fire in Providence today… two firefighters taken to the hospital with injuries… no word on their condition…” It can be terrifying – especially when I break out the cell phone and start dialing any of the sixty some-odd numbers I’ve stored in there of members of the PFD and no one is answering. It’s bad enough to me to know that any of “My Firefighters” has been hurt, but the fright can turn to panic when I find out that the company involved in the incident is filled with my close personal friends.

On that note… let’s get back to the “but”… My cell phone starts to vibrate, but I’m working at the bookstore and we’ve got a ridiculous line filled with parents and their teenage kids. Ninety percent of those kids are being reprimanded by the parents because they have waited (AGAIN!!!) until the very last second to complete their summer reading. Obviously, I can’t answer my phone. A short time later, I’m able to take my afternoon break – ten minutes without listening to, “when the hell are you going to stop doing this, Little Timmy?” I take my cell phone from my pocket and look at the screen – it was Michael who had called and he’s left me a voice mail message. I dial in to my voice mail and listen.

“Hey, Erin, it’s Michael Morse. I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news – well, not bad news, really, but, well… I hurt my back during my shift today…” I wasn’t quite as panicked as I sometimes feel, because it was Michael, himself, telling me that he got hurt. We’ll have to set up another time for a ride along and he’s telling me that he feels awful about it. About that time I felt I'd rather be listening to Timmy's mom yelling at him for not having read "Of Mice and Men" yet.

I return his call… getting his voice mail. “Michael, it’s Erin. No worries about the ride along – I’m not concerned about the filming. I’m worried about you. I hope that you’re relatively okay. Give me a call and let me know how you’re doing. We’ll set up another time – I still want to film with you. Just please take care of yourself.”

My sister calls me an “empath” – says that I worry too much most of the time. I can’t say that she’s wrong. My best friend has been telling me the same thing for the last twenty-nine years. I just can’t help it, though – it’s who I am and what I am. When I call someone “friend”, I MEAN it. I worry for them, I feel their pain, I keep them in my thoughts and prayers.

My firefighters, though… man, that can be rough. Every time I hear a siren (and yes, I CAN tell the difference between a police siren and a fire siren, though I worry for all of them) I say, “keep them safe”. Even if I’m just rolling down the road and I see a fire engine, “keep them safe”. These people lay their lives on the line every single time they get on the truck and roll to a call. Just look at what happened with Ladder 6! Crazy drivers trying to cut off fire trucks in their little Toyota Corollas. Oy, they drive me nuts.

THIS is the very thing that has compelled me to do this – to take on this massive project that sometimes overwhelms me. It’s WORTH the work… because THEY are worth the work.

Be well & stay safe, everyone. I love you, my friends – and I MEAN that. Oh, and please do get well soon, Michael. Looking forward to rolling with a PFD Legend. :-)