PLYMOUTH, Mass. — Fire Chief G. Edward Bradley carries Narcan, the drug that reverses heroin overdoses, nearly everywhere he goes around this sprawling town. Even to the Little League field when he watches T-ball games.

It’s part of a personal mission, gnawing and never-ending, that Bradley sees as the greatest challenge of his long career.

“You see all the alarms around town for the nuclear plant we have here. I wish we had one for heroin,” Bradley said last week.

Plymouth counted 15 drug-related deaths last year and 313 overdoses, a total 50 percent greater than Taunton’s, a city of similar size that once had been considered the face of the drug epidemic.

This year, Plymouth is on track to smash its own grim record. By last Saturday, the town had recorded 136 overdoses – an average of exactly one a day – and 10 related deaths.

It’s a tally that has risen so quickly, so stunningly, that many Plymouth leaders did not realize the town had an opioid crisis until it overwhelmed them. That includes Police Chief Michael Botieri.

“It took time for me to become a believer in this epidemic,” Botieri said. Now, nearly everyone believes.

“It’s not getting any better, obviously,” Bradley said. “We realized we’re as bad as some of the biggest cities in the state, if not worse.”

Plymouth’s per-capita overdose rate is significantly higher than hard-hit Worcester’s, a city three times its size that saw a 59 percent rise in overdoses last year.

While the numbers grow, so has Plymouth’s response.

A task force has been formed, a new squad of plainclothes police has made more than 200 drug arrests in the last six months, and the local hospital is making drug-abuse prevention and treatment a critical priority.

“There is no solution to this unless everybody works together,” Bradley said. “Don’t be afraid. Don’t hide. Jump up and down and scream.”

The task force is meeting regularly and draws together officials from the schools, courthouse, district attorney’s office, Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Plymouth, legislators, Town Hall, clergy and the YMCA.

Plymouth officials cannot yet document that the effort is bearing fruit, in terms of fewer overdoses and deaths, but officials say progress has begun. Leaders from all levels of government – and residents, too – are talking with each other about the drug crisis in ways they never had before.

Information is shared, and strategies are taking shape.

The hospital is bringing social workers and behavioral health specialists into the emergency room to help addicts in crisis find a path to treatment and sobriety.

“It’s been absolutely devastating to me,” the school district’s superintendent, Gary Maestas, said. “It’s devastating when I walk down a sidewalk in our community and see a syringe on the sidewalk. My heart skips a beat.”

The opioid crisis has swept through cities and towns all across Massachusetts, accounting for more than 1,000 deaths last year, state officials said. The crisis does not discriminate, but finding a reason for Plymouth’s uncommon level of suffering has been elusive.

“Why here? I have absolutely no answer for you,” Town Manager Melissa Arrighi said.

The overdoses occur at all times of day in Plymouth, in neighborhoods throughout the town’s 134 square miles, and across income levels.

With every death, officials here are reminded that the fight will be long – perhaps decades long, perhaps generations. They insist they are committed.

“For me, it’s kind of personal,” Bradley, the fire chief, said. “I have six grandchildren.”

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