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there has to be some"over 20 years of service female firefighters "still active out there somewhere
Just dropping in for a coffee to see if there are any female firefighters around who have been involved with the business for as long as I have. I have been a firefighter for almost 22 years in a rural volunteer department. I was the first active female firefighter in our county when I began. I have been very fortunate to have worked side by side with a bunch of wonderful guys of all ages. Both of my sons have also been involved with the dept. I hope there are some older women out there to share some stories with.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by IDoItAll on
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I'm not there yet but this is my 15th year. I also was the first female firefighter in my county! Talk about breaking through the glass ceiling! I have had alot of events and I love my "boys". First I was their sister now I am moving into the mother mode with them. They are a great group and I am proud to go side by side with them.
Hang in there, we just get better with age!!!!
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Permalink Reply by Doug on
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There's a few on the Pittsburgh, PA fire department. My cousin is one of them. She's part of the reason I started almost 11 years ago. I don't know if any of them are on this site though, sorry. Take care and be safe
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Permalink Reply by penny on
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Good Morning: Glad to hear from you. I know what you mean when you say "mother mode". The guys in our dept. range in age from 16 to 68. Whenever I need a laugh I just drop in and there is usually a bunch around. We are a very social group and being a rural volunteer dept., our hall is a gathering place for all the members to get together between calls. We are fortunate to be funded by the Municipal government and therefore we don't have to do any extensive fundraising. We have a very active womens' auxilliary which helps out with our various financial needs. We have a complement of 68 members and 10 vehicles. This weekend we recieved 30 new sets of bunker gear including helmets, boots, gloves, pants and jackets. We're very fortunate to now have the whole department outfitted with safe and serviceable gear. I am the secretary for the department and due to a bad hip, I no longer can be on scene which I really, really miss. At one time or another I held various positions within the department including Training Officer. My son is the Deputy Chief of the dept. and my other son who lives in Toronto and is a former member, is now the Superintendant of Fire Protection and Emergency Preparedness for the Toronto Transit System. It feels good to know that his interest in the business began with being a member of a small rural fire department. I would be interested in hearing more from you about yourself and your department. Look forward to hearing from you soon. Take care and stay safe
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Hi Doug: thanks for your reply. Slowly but surely I am hearing about other women firefighters in my age range. I would love to hear from your cousin if she is interested in corresponding with me. We could set something up if that is the case. You take care also and hopefully you will continue to enjoy what you do safely for a lot of years. Take care
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Permalink Reply by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on
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Penny:
I'm not a female, but I am the only boy with SEVEN sisters.
And I have been involved in the fire service for 27 plus years.
Would you consider me "honorary"?
TCSS.
Art
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Hi Art: For sure, it would be an honor to have you as part of the more "seasoned" crew. Believe me if you survived seven sisters then there's nothing we can throw at you that you won't be able to handle.I would imagine that you have dodged more fireballs from them then you ever did on the job. lol. I would love to hear your story and more about your fire dept. Please keep in touch. Take care, Penny
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To give you an idea of my time with our fire department, when I got on, we had TWO 15 minute Scott SCBAs. I called it a side slinger, because the bottle was actually positioned at the side under the right arm. If you were lucky, you got maybe 8-9 minutes of air. My first coat resembled a rain coat with a wool liner. I think it would have melted if the fire was hot enough. Hip boots and rubberized gloves. I guess they didn't want the nozzle slipping from your grip. Helmets were made from the same material that they used for dinner plates back then. I have all of my old stuff. At the last meeting, I got my first SCBA because we were cleaning out to make room for new stuff. We have one just like it in our little museum at the station. It's pretty cool.
Best part back then was riding the tailboard. Not real safe, but fun as hell.
I would say that back then, it seemed less complicated, but then I realize that it seemed that way because we have learned so much more since then.
Funny how that happens, huh?
TCSS.
Art
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Permalink Reply by turk182 on
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Art,
I do not have as many years as you but I remember when I got in we had the pull up boots the old coats that we called duct coats but they looked like they we made from kanvas and the old squad 51 helmets we use welders gloves with the silver backs on them.
And I loved riding the beave tail also we used to have safety straps we us on back but you knew if you rolled you were done for.
Was nice in the summer but sucked in the winter riding back there.
We started with the old gas masks with the charcoal filters then went to msa's with the heavy steel cylinders.
Seemed like we retained more of younger firefighters then than we do now. but I think you are right they did seem alot less complicated.
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Hi turk182. Great to hear from you. It's really interesting to hear about gear and equipment that was used way back when. We thought we were pretty cool at the time but when I looked back at how much the gear has advanced and the safety aspects have been addressed, it's pretty scary. I remember an old corn broom that I used to keep on the truck to use at grass fires. I still contend that my old corn broom was more effective at beating the fire out and getting down to the coals then the backpacks were. In those days we had no sop's. We weren't always sure where everyone was at the scene, who was doing what, who was inside, who was out, who was on traffic etc., but we still managed to get the job done and we were always mighty proud of the outcome and our performance. The training now is really pertinent and up-to-date as it should be. In the earlier days we weren't faced with as many safety concerns re hazardous materials and spills etc. They were great days. Many great memories and laughs after the fact.
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Now that you mention about the brooms for field fires We were assisting a neighboring department and they used brooms to fight fires until they had the following incident.
We were dispatched at around 8 AM and were fighting the fires all day. At about 6PM we thought we had the fires out and we walked out of the fields to our engine "was before we had brush trucks" ant the company we assisted were walking out threw a field that had not burned.
Next thing we new they were radioing use to get over to were they were because the field they were in was now on fire when we got over there, their chief said we were walking out and I was dragging my broom behind me and the next thing I knew the field was on fire.
When he was walking out a hot ember must have got stuck in his broom and caught fire when he was half way out. as he drug the broom behind him he set a long path on fire behind him and with the wind blowing started to rapidly spread threw the field. It took us another two hours to contain and extinguish the fire. we us beaters that we mad out of a handle and a piece of old mine belt for brush fires they do to now!!
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