At the end of 2003 I was finishing my fifth year as a firefighter/paramedic with the Wilbraham Fire Department. I was always bugging the Chief for extra projects to keep me busy. One day he came to me and asked me to write a fire safety article for the local newspaper, The Hampden/Wilbraham Times. If I did a good job I could expect to write a new one every week.
I was thrilled. Not only was it added responsibility but it was a chance to productively combine my two loves, writing and emergency services work. I also knew I would have the chance to share important messages with a broad audience. My first article was the very dry but necessary: Woodstoves and Chimneys Need Special Attention This Time of Year. Oh yah, quite the page turner. I'd like to think I successfully imparted a wise message but I fear I may have just provided extra fuel to more fires buring in unsafe flues. I won't blame my material though. There had to be a way to get people crazy for home safety lectures. If Dana Carvey can sell choppin' broccoli, I could bring fire education to life.
I was thrilled. Not only was it added responsibility but it was a chance to productively combine my two loves, writing and emergency services work. I also knew I would have the chance to share important messages with a broad audience. My first article was the very dry but necessary: Woodstoves and Chimneys Need Special Attention This Time of Year. Oh yah, quite the page turner. I'd like to think I successfully imparted a wise message but I fear I may have just provided extra fuel to more fires buring in unsafe flues. I won't blame my material though. There had to be a way to get people crazy for home safety lectures. If Dana Carvey can sell choppin' broccoli, I could bring fire education to life.
I'll admit the urge to get scandalous reared its amoral head. I considered presenting my lessons as tales of horror gone terribly wrong. "Your child just cut his leg off but YOU NEVER TOOK THE TIME TO MAKE A FIRST AID KIT!" But I resisted. I would find a way to sell my snake oil without actually making anybody drink it.
I'm happy to say more lively articles followed as I steered readers through the maze of home oxygen use, how to bike and swim safely and my personal favorite: "My House Is On Fire-Now What?"
Every Thursday I would trek down to Town Hall to pick up a copy of the new Times and flip through really fast to see which page my article had landed on. A good week meant I stopped flipping around page 15. An average week meant I made it to 26+. A bad week would have me flipping through the paper twice because the first time I missed it posted above the classifieds.
Imagine my surprise when one Sunny afternoon in May 2004 I picked up my Thursday copy and didn't have to flip at all. I was on the front page! Other than the fact thatI ran up and down the corridors of Town Hall screaming, "I made the front freakin' page!" I was speechless.
Imagine my surprise when one Sunny afternoon in May 2004 I picked up my Thursday copy and didn't have to flip at all. I was on the front page! Other than the fact thatI ran up and down the corridors of Town Hall screaming, "I made the front freakin' page!" I was speechless.
So here's the article as originally printed. Is it truly front page worthy? I don't know, it really may have just been a slow news week. What I do know is that for seven days I was on page one and they can't take that away from me! I saw my byline and article everywhere I went in town that week. It was in the pharmacy, all the restaurants, the library, on the desk of the guys who work at the dump and in the can at the firehouse. I had arrived!
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