Area fire departments try to spark interest with women

Area fire departments try to spark interest with women

[...] seeing the fire department's work and sharing dinner with friends she made at local stations helped her decide what capacity she wanted to serve in.

The 24-year-old borrowed a 40-pound weighted vest and started preparing for the Candidate Physical Ability Test, a difficult obstacle course required of all applicants.

Salem Fire & EMS has one woman working as a full-time firefighter-EMT out of 57; she also holds a leadership position in the department as a senior firefighter.

Salem Fire & EMS Chief John Prillaman said recruiting more women is important, not only because some residents might prefer to work with women during a medical emergency or a fire, but also because residents need to be able to see their community reflected in local departments.

In the Roanoke Valley, recruiters set up booths at job fairs and reach out to collegiate athletes and at local gyms, hoping to find physically fit, qualified women who are interested in public safety.

Officials also hope that developing relationships with high school students through an internship program will boost interest among young women.

Stone, who already had been fighting fires for six years, became a firefighter-EMT at age 16 after volunteering through a high school vocational program in Franklin County.

Residents wrote letters to the editor, complaining that "lowering standards" would put the public at risk and that the women wouldn't be capable of an effective rescue.

"If certain individuals are bent on forcing themselves into anomalous career paths, don't do it at the expense of public safety," read one letter published in August 1997.

Stone recalled that many men in the department were most concerned with how bathroom and sleeping accommodations would be handled.

Dana Lacy, who started fighting fires in high school as a volunteer and today works for Roanoke County Fire & Rescue, said dismissive attitudes from coworkers are rare these days.

When Stone returned to the department in 2014 after spending four years as deputy chief for Bedford County Fire and Rescue, many of the people who had opposed her hire had retired.