More Women Entering Fire Service
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Associate Professor of Education
In some fire departments there appears to be more fear of women applicants than of major conflagrations. Yet a review of what has been happening nationally is quite reassuring. Women are able to provide good fire fighting services without presenting unusual difficulties.
Currently in fire-related services there is a large number of active women if one counts the auxiliaries, paramedics, rescue squads, dispatchers, ambulance squads, and the clerical staffs. There are even some women fire commissioners, such as Dana Henry of Los Angeles, and an occasional fire coordinator, but certainly not in large numbers. In addition, there are fire department educational programs specifically carried out by women, such as the fire prevention program of the Laureltown, N. Y., Fire Department.
But what about women fire fighters? Is there a role for them here? What would make their entry difficult? What are some of the problems? What about physical requirements? Why should a department—either paid or volunteer—have women in fire suppression roles? Which departments today have women in those roles? The answers to these questions will be developed in the following paragraphs.
All persons in fire suppression roles, either men or women, should meet the department’s physical requirements. The requirements vary with departments. Some use their own and some use national guidelines, such as NFPA Standard 1001, “Fire Fighter Professional Qualifications,” which lists general entrance requirements, medical requirements and minimum physical requirements for fire department candidates. It’s interesting to note that in the medical requirement section (2-2.8), there are at least 13 condiditions that apply only to the female sex. It is noteworthy that the committee which developed this qualification standard did not preclude women.
Physical requirements
The physical fitness requirements listed in section 2-3 briefly are: run 1 1/2 miles in 12 minutes, do 25 bent-knee sit-ups in 90 seconds, chin oneself five times, do 10 push-ups, walk a 20-foot beam carrying at least 20 pounds of fire hose, carry a 125-pound weight 100 feet without stopping, and move a 15-pound weight in different directions 14 times in 35 seconds.
The Alexandria, Va., Fire Department uses a different physical fitness test. Sharon Devlin, 5 feet 3 inches, 110 pounds, had to do 10 push-ups, 18 situps, and a 6-foot 4-inch broad jump to become a rookie fire fighter in 1974.
The California Division of Forestry’s Fire Fighting Service has the same physical requirement for men and women: run 550 yards in 2½ minutes, run an obstacle course in 20 seconds with an 80-pound sack, and no hair touching the collar.
Physical task study
A study done by the University of Maryland used the following five physical tasks: extend a ladder, carry a 72-pound section of hose up five stories, pull a hose from the ground floor to the fifth floor, chop a door down, and drag or carry a 117-pound dummy from the fifth floor of a building. These tasks were asked of 3050 full-time male fire fighters in the Washington area. The report presented to the International Association of Fire Fighters in April 1977 showed that one-third of those doing the tasks were physically unfit. Since no women were involved in the test, there were no comparative statistics.
Clearly there is no justification toward changing the physical requirements of any given department as long as they are applied to all potential fire fighters. In any case, one should be in good physical condition to enter and remain in the fire service.
In London’s Science Museum exhibit on the fire service, one can see a print of Heinrich Zeising’s 1613 “Theatrum Machinarum.” It’s interesting for two reasons: one is that it is the earliest known illustration of fire pumps transportable on wheels or runners, and secondly, it shows women being used in fire fighting. They supplied the water for this engine on wheels by means of a chain of buckets.
Many volunteers
Yes, but that’s different, you’ll say. Why? Because they were needed? There is precedence for women in fire fighting roles because of need, but usually only in volunteer departments. For example, to cite a few, the Orange County, Calif., Fire Department has had effective all-women units in Trabuco, Silverado, and Modjeska Canyon since 1957. Bradford, Maine, had backup women volunteers in 1970. There was a limited number of available men, so the women learned to drive the apparatus and operate the equipment until the men arrived at fires.
A volunteer fire department which actively recruited women early in the chronology was the Pewaukee, Wis., Fire Department in 1974. The women took a firemanship course and at fires laddered buildings, pulled hose, operated pumps, drove trucks and, as the chief noted, “I wish I had done this 20 years ago.” Superior, Col., population 230, has a six-women volunteer day crew out of necessity. Napa City in northern California has a nine-woman crew which covers 50 square miles and to quote one of this crew, “This isn’t women’s lib. It’s common sense and being reasonable.”
There are women volunteers in a bush fire brigade near Sydney, Australia, who are on duty during weekdays with the men while on duty on weekends. The Boles Acre, N. M., Volunteer Fire Department did not have enough male volunteers so women joined.
Volunteer fire departments with women members have received some publicity. The August 1976 issue of Fire Engineering featured one such department in Pennsylvania. Hartfield, in southwestern New York State, has also been the subject of an article. In Broome County, N. Y., there are five volunteer fire departments with active women fire fighters. Some of these women are officers.
Bruce Piringer, state supervisor of fire training for Kentucky, reports there are approximately 200 women who have gone through the Kentucky certification system used in volunteer departments, and some of these women are also officers.
Seek paid jobs
At the present time, there are women evidently interested in joining paid fire departments. Three hundred women applied for 51 fire fighter jobs in Washington, D. C., in February 1977.
There are also paid departments interested in hiring women. In May 1977, Detroit women could apply for fire fighting jobs for the first time. The few requirements changed were age, height and weight minimums.
There is precedence for paid women fire fighters. Judy Livers became a ‘cause celebre’ in March 1974 when she became the first paid woman fire fighter in the nation, joining the Arlington County, Va., Fire Department. The publicity surrounding this caused tension, resentment, and frustration. Yet no one has questioned her professional ability as a fire fighter.
Houston began a recruitment drive for women fire fighters in the summer of 1974. San Diego began in the fall of 1974, and Los Angeles in 1976. Seattle started a prerecruitment training class for women in the summer of 1977, and the Kenner, La., Fire Department hired Penny Frame as its first woman around the same time. New York City permitted women to take the test in October 1977 for the first time.
British women fire fighters
Britain’s first woman retained fire fighter is Mary Jo Langdon of East Sussex. She was appointed in August 1976. North of London, in the Hertfordshire Fire Brigade, there are currently two women retained in this paid department. They work part-time and are called when needed. They attend drills and do all tasks expected of the men.
If one compares numbers at the present time, there are easily more women in volunteer departments than in paid departments. And this outnumbering will continue because there are more volunteer than paid departments.
One of the problems with women joining the ranks of fire fighters is the discriminating written tests required by some departments. Points are added to written test scores for prior military service. Since far more men were in military service, many more men than women receive bonus points. This worked against Candace Nestor. Her score of 95.25 out of a possible 100 placed her 15th in line for 60 positions in the Los Angeles Fire Department until the bonus points were added. Then she was not in the top 60.
Opposition by wives
Another problem is what I’ll term “opposition.” Some wives of men employed by the California Forestry Division showed concern when 39 women were hired as fire fighters for the first time in the summer of 1975. The wives believed, they said, that their husbands were spending more time with the new staff than with them. But at least they did not go as far as the fire fighters’ wives in San Diego, who formed a group in 1974 called the Concerned Fire Fighters’ Wives. They hired a lawyer to oppose the assigning of five women to San Diego fire stations.
W. Howard McClennan, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, expected some debate on women in the ranks of his 170,000 member union, but most opposition is coming from the wives.
Chief Dee J. Rogers of the San Diego Fire Department mentioned a “lot of overconcerns about problems that may or may not exist…. a fear of the unknown,” and the author is inclined to agree. As more and more women join the ranks of fire fighters, these opposition problems should lessen.
Club atmosphere problem
Another difficulty is what I’ll label the club or social atmosphere problem. Some fire departments, probably more so of the volunteer type, have the atmosphere of a closed fraternity and resent the intrusion of a female into the hitherto all-male dominion. This is not unlike a neighborhood pub in London where women are made to feel uncomfortable. Here the analogy ends. A pub is social, while a fire department is to serve the community. The club will need to modify some of its rules.
A problem presented in some reports has to do with equipment and wearing apparel. I do not see any more problems related to women driving and operating equipment than with any man or woman learning a new task. This argument presented by some cannot be substantiated. There are women pilots, bus drivers, miners, telephone riggers, oil drillers, and any number of other “engineering-related” jobs.
There also is not a problem with available sizes of clothing. The coats, helmets, and boots available in the firehouse are likely to be on the large size for some women. But gear manufacturers have smaller size boots, smaller head bands and smaller coats for sale.
More women expected
In summary, there are and will be concerns voiced and written about women in fire fighting roles. But the fact stands that there are, there have been, and there will be more women entering the fire service, both volunteer and paid. If a female has the desire (and not everyone wants to be a fire fighter), meets the entry requirements—physical and/or written—and passes a background investigation, then that applicant should not be denied pursuing a career in the fire service because of sex (the wrong one).
If your department is asked to consider a female applicant, it’s no big deal! You’re not the first; it’s been done before; it’s acceptable; other departments have women. In addition, the laws are against this form of discrimination. In 1977, the New York State Legislature passed a bill banning discrimination against women by volunteer fire departments, and federal equal opportunity laws state the requirements for hiring in paid positions.
As Diane White, Washington, D. C., Fire Department women’s coordinator, said: “Women might need to be better than a man at first, but once they’ve demonstrated they can perform on an equal basis, they’ll be accepted.”
The main point is that the opportunity for women as fire fighters cannot be denied.
