Portsmouth's deputy fire chief Michael O'Brien is moving on

He's leaving to become inspector in R.I. fire marshal’s office

By Jim McGaw
Posted 5/26/17

PORTSMOUTH — For a first responder, learning how to compartmentalize your emotions is part of the job, Deputy Fire Chief Michael O’Brien said.

Over his 20-plus years on the …

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Portsmouth's deputy fire chief Michael O'Brien is moving on

He's leaving to become inspector in R.I. fire marshal’s office

Posted

PORTSMOUTH — For a first responder, learning how to compartmentalize your emotions is part of the job, Deputy Fire Chief Michael O’Brien said.

Over his 20-plus years on the department, he’s responded to his share of horrific emergency calls — including fatal accidents involving youngsters — that require professionalism and care.

And then, like other first responders, he must return home to his family.

“I went to a car accident and the guy was pinned under a truck,” recalled Deputy O’Brien. “He was alive and talking to us. This happened right around 4 or 5 in the afternoon. We picked the truck up off the guy and he went from talking to us to dying within a few minutes. 

“Then I go home, and we have a house full of people because we were having a dinner party. You walk into that and your wife’s looking at you like, ‘What’s going on?’ I put my game face on. You try not to take it home, but you do.”

At the same time, he said it’s important not to check your feelings at the door when you come to the station every day.

“When I first got here there were guys I wanted to emulate, guys that were like mentors to me,” he said. “Those guys understood the gravity of their work; they understood what they did was important. Then there were the guys who didn’t perform as well and those were the guys that took it for granted and forgot. They were still doing the important work, but they didn’t realize how much it mattered and they lost that perspective.

“That’s what I tell these guys here: Be conditioned to it so you can handle it, but never become desensitized. Always respect everybody’s feelings and know this is the worst day in their life and be aware of it. It’s going to serve you well in your career.”

It’s certainly served Deputy O’Brien well during his time with the department, including six years as deputy. But that chapter of his professional career comes to a close on Friday. On May 30, he starts his new job as Rhode Island’s deputy fire marshal.

“It’s not an easy decision to make,” said Deputy O’Brien, who’s 46. “I kind of grew up in this place. You have to make an intellectual decision — analyze the situation and decide what’s best for your family. But the sentimental side of me wants to keep going. I always wanted to be the chief of the department and I’ve loved the department since I was a kid. There’s a ton of tradition, and growing up in Portsmouth, it’s tough to pull away.”

“His shoes will be very big ones to fill,” Fire Chief Michael Cranson said in a Facebook post. “He has been an excellent firefighter and a great friend.”

When it began

He first thought about becoming a firefighter when he was 4 or 5.

“I was camping with my parents,” he recalled. “There was a big brush fire and the trucks were rolling in and I was standing against the tree watching this forest fire happen. As one of the trucks went by, a guy looked over and waved at me. I thought that was the coolest thing in the world.”

Later on, there was a blaze at the base of the Mt. Hope Bridge, not far from Barkers Lane where he grew up.

“The town was a lot quieter back then and the trucks a lot louder; you could literally hear the trucks leaving the station — not the sirens, the trucks themselves,” he said. “My ears perked up and I ran up Barkers Lane onto Bristol Ferry Road. A lawnmower had caught fire and then it spread up the side of the house. All the white fire trucks showed up and knocked it right down.”

He first became a firefighter when he enlisted in the Air Force in 1992. When he returned to Portsmouth to take a job with his hometown department in July 1996, he was stunned by the contrast between the two jobs.

“I came from a department of about 18, 20 guys on a shift and we did maybe a thousand calls a year,” he said. “My first day here, there were four guys on duty including the dispatcher and they were doing double, if not triple that amount of calls. That was a shocker for me. You have to be ready here.”

Being a firefighter in your own community often means performing CPR on people you know well — sometimes even your own father. The late James E. O’Brien, a former Town Council member whose name is on the wall of the fire station, was among his patients.

“My father is passed now, but when he was sick I had to respond to his house. I think at that time he was having a heart attack and he was really sick and could barely talk,” he said.

Understandably, he was struggling to retain his composure while treating his father, but some good-natured ribbing from his dad calmed him down. “My hands are shaking and I’m trying to start a line on him and I missed the IV,” recalled Deputy O’Brien. “He looked at me and said, ‘Oh, I thought you were good at this job.’ That was my dad in a nutshell — busting my chops. He put me at ease with that wisecrack and I jumped over to another vein, got the IV, and treated him just like another patient and off to the hospital we went.

“He survived that one.”

Special delivery

One of the more rewarding experiences was when he and Chief Cranson delivered a baby more than 10 years ago. Once again, it was the patient who got the first responders to relax and focus.

“We get calls from people in labor all the time, and when we get there everything’s usually fine and we have plenty of time,” he said. “But in this case, she’s on the floor and the baby was crowning. You get that nervous moment, and then the mother said, ‘OK guys, just relax and tell me what you want me to do.’ She put us at ease.”

The baby’s name was Olivia. “We actually went to her first birthday party.”

One of Deputy O’Brien’s biggest accomplishments during his tenure here was being the department’s resident grant-writer — bringing in thousands of dollars to purchase needed equipment without relying on tax dollars. 

“I pay taxes in town, so to get that kind of equipment here without causing a burden on our people is gratifying. I think I’m four for four in my grant-writing,” he said.

He’s also proud of the fact he’s always made it a point of letting people know about the inner workings of the department. 

“When I first entered the department I was shocked by how little people really knew about how we function,” he said. “So it’s been kind of a mission of mine to make sure everybody knew our story, that they knew what they were paying for, what we were training for, how we were serving them. For people to support us and give us the resources we need, they have to know what we’re doing.”

But he doesn’t like to toot his own horn. “Everything is a team effort. You can’t do anything in this place by yourself,” he said.

New job a ‘thankless’ one

The outgoing deputy acknowledged that his new job as the state’s deputy fire marshal won’t be so glamorous. 

“Being a fire inspector is a thankless job, but it’s critically important,” he said. “There’s a corny saying, ‘There’s no glory in fighting a fire that could have been prevented,’ but it’s true.”

We’ve seen right here in Rhode Island, he pointed out, what can happen if fire prevention is not done correctly. “I was an ambulance driver during the Station (Nightclub) fire, and I saw firsthand how important fire prevention is and what can happen if the job isn’t done the right way.”

The deputy said he’ll miss the pride and sense of accomplishment that came with the job in Portsmouth. And, the people. 

“I’ve been able to do things here that I’d never thought I could accomplish. And to be able to do that with such great people is a feeling you can’t replace,” he said.

Grateful to family

He’s also thankful for members of his immediate family: His wife of nearly 20 years, Teresa, and his sons Aidan, 19, and Nola, 17. 

“I think I missed part of, if not all of, my oldest son’s first four Christmases,” he said. “I’ve left them hanging on multiple occasions when I was supposed to meet them somewhere, like see a play. It’s a group sacrifice; they’ve lived through everything — the highs and the lows.

“They deserve a lot of credit and I’ll always be grateful to them.”

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Meet our staff
Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.