The Arizona Daily Star
TUCSON, Ariz. — Laura Baker tried out for the WNBA three times.
From 1997 to 1999, she spent time at training camps in Phoenix, Detroit and Seattle, and was on the verge of breaking into professional basketball only a few years after it became a career option for women.
“If you just try, you can’t go back and say you never did,” Baker said. “I may not have made it, but at least I always know I tried.”
Almost 20 years later, she’s achieved a different goal in a career field where women are more underrepresented than any other.
On Monday, Baker received her assistant chief badge from the Tucson Fire Department. She’s now attained the highest rank that a woman has held in the history of the Tucson Fire Department.
Nationally, only 3.4 percent of firefighters are women, according to a 2012 Bureau of Labor Statistics report.
There are 32 women in the department.
“I’m very humbled by being the first woman assistant chief for Tucson fire,” Baker said. “I have a tendency to downplay the gender side because it shouldn’t matter. But the reality is that the significance of me being a woman in a leadership role is very important.”
A 20-year veteran of the department, Baker initially planned on a career in the FBI. It was while she was pursuing a business degree at the University of California-Berkeley for that purpose that she discovered the fire service.
“My track coach knew a former athlete who worked for the fire service, and he mentioned it to me,” she said. “I knew I’d get to be a part of a team and get paid to work out. It seemed like an easy transition.”
Baker entered the fire academy at the Tucson Fire Department in 1994. Over the years, she moved her way through the different departments and up the ranks, holding positions of firefighter, paramedic, various captains and deputy chief. While she was serving as deputy chief, she was also the city’s fire marshal.
“Training isn’t only setting the foundation for those who come up through the ranks at TFD, but a big piece is also recruiting,” Baker said. “That’s a passion for me.”
Baker earned a master of science in fire service administration from Arizona State University and graduated from the Executive Fire Officer Program, the highest academic honor a firefighter can receive.
Through her involvement with a group called iWomen, the International Association of Women in Fire and Emergency Services, Baker met Cheryl Horvath, division chief at Northwest Fire District.
The two had numerous discussions about how to recruit and retain women in fire services, and from there an idea was born.
“It started as a fire camp for high school girls to show them that the fire service was a career that they could grow up to have,” Horvath said. “People don’t realize that firefighter is a job women can do. More importantly, women don’t realize it’s a job that women can do.”
Camp Fury began in 2009 from a grant from the Southern Arizona Women’s Fund. For its second year, Camp Fury partnered with the Girl Scouts of Southern Arizona and has continued to grow.
“It’s become a signature program for the Girl Scouts,” CEO Debbie Rich said.
Camp Fury is now offered in Virginia and North Carolina, and recently began in Yuma.
“This is really a testament to Laura’s success,” Rich said. “She’s so willing to share her story with the girls and talk about the obstacles she’s faced in life and how she moves forward.”
Two years ago, Tucson’s Camp Fury partnered with law enforcement and shifted to a public-safety camp.
“I was a little resistant at first,” Baker said. “But I remembered that I initially wanted to go into law enforcement, and if we opened it up, we might draw in people with the same mind-set as me.”
The Fire Department is still a few steps behind law enforcement when it comes to representation and diversity, she said.
“It’s actually moving backwards right now, because women that came into the Fire Department in the late 1980s are retiring now, and we’re not bringing new women in at the same pace.”
Baker was hired as part of a consent decree in 1994, requiring that the Tucson Fire Department follow steps to increase the number of women in the force by 20 by 1999.
“If it weren’t for that, I don’t know that I’d be here,” she said.
In the midst of her presidency with iWomen, involvement with Camp Fury and deputy chief duties, Baker was diagnosed with breast cancer last year.
Upon discovering a lump in her breast, she went to see a doctor right away and was in treatment two weeks later. An MRI following her bilateral mastectomy revealed that the chemotherapy had done its job and she was cancer-free before it had metastasized.
In March, she will be a Tucson co-chair for Komen Southern Arizona Race for the Cure.
“I’ve always been a private and humble person, but I’ve learned that sharing my story can make a difference in other people’s lives,” Baker said. “I beat breast cancer, and I’m blessed and thankful.”
Along with her life partner and 12-year-old daughter who also plays basketball and runs track, Baker looks forward to entering this next phase of her life and career.
Tucson Fire Chief Jim Critchley said that she has a firm understanding of how important the Fire Department is for the community and for the firefighters within it.
“This is terrific for diversity, and I’m so proud that she made it this far,” he said. “But it’s not whether she’s a man or a woman. She got the job because she has the skills to lead the divisions.”
Baker’s drive and determination can be seen in everything she does, and is a good reminder for others that everybody can have opportunities through hard work, Critchley said.
“Laura achieving this position is so important in so many ways,” said Horvath, of Northwest Fire. “It speaks volumes when a young lady can see a woman in an officer position.”
Since 50 percent of fire departments in America don’t have a woman on their crews, Baker said she’s aware of the impact she can have on young girls and other firefighters.
“The way I see it, it’s my duty to take care of the community and the people I work with, regardless if I’m a man or woman,” she said. “I look forward to a day when gender won’t matter because the obstacles that are in women’s paths won’t exist.”
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