By Emily Leone
Tribune-Review (Pennsylvania)
Copyright 2006 Tribune Review Publishing Company
All Rights Reserved
Rebecca McDowell remembers taking part in the Americanism Day parade in Uniontown last year in her thick, hot uniform.
She remembers what it felt like marching with her station, feeling proud to be one of its members.
What sticks out so vividly in her mind, though, are the children watching the parade and pointing at her.
“Look! It’s a girl firefighter!” they said in surprise and awe.
McDowell, 24, has been a volunteer firefighter for Uniontown for a little over a year now. Her father, Jim, has been doing it for 13 years.
“I grew up at the fire station. Since I was 13, I always talked about being a firefighter,” she said.
Many things have changed in the last half of the century. There’s still the idea that a firefighter can only be a rough-and-tough male. But slowly that stigma is breaking down.
This year’s Fayette County Firemen’s Association annual convention in Connellsville reflected this change. Women firefighters from several area stations participated in the Battle of the Barrel competition and other convention activities, right alongside their male counterparts.
According to Women in the Fire Service, a national organization that promotes and supports women firefighters, there were more than 5,800 professional female firefighters in the country in 2005.
These numbers are growing. The figure from WFS does not include female wild land firefighters or volunteer firefighters, who would bring the total to well over 6,100.
Chrissy Kohler represents one of the uncounted, a woman who is bringing those numbers up. Kohler, 20, has been with Everson Volunteer Fire Company for almost a year as part of the Pennsylvania National Guard.
While training for the Air Force at the Goodfellow Air Force Base in Texas, Kohler seemingly stumbled upon her firefighting career.
“I knew from a young age I wanted to be in the Air Force. I had the option of police officer, firefighter or mechanic (at the base). I visited each work station on my base, and there were no girls,” she said, and ultimately made up her mind.
Both women’s choices have empowered them to become selfless firefighters at their respective stations, working varied hours and coming in whenever there is a call, all without pay.
McDowell’s mom and grandparents are naturally concerned about her choice of volunteer activities, although now she says they are aware of what she was trained to do. When she started, the guys in her station were skeptical, too.
“At first, I think it was because they knew me since I was a little girl, it was hard on them,” McDowell said. “They’ve had girls in their department quit on them. I had to prove myself to them that I was capable of handling it.”
During Kohler’s training the guys ignored her ponytail and treated her just like every other new firefighter who goes through the program.
“They didn’t take it easy on me just because I’m a girl. You have to carry people that are twice your weight to save them,” she said.
Now the men she works with are like the big brothers she never had.
“It’s definitely an adrenaline rush,” she said.
Females working in a male-dominated profession can cause friction. But Kohler said it isn’t her coworkers that get her fired up.
“A lot of times, it’s not a problem with the males. A lot of times, it’s with the gear,” she said. “It doesn’t fit (a woman) as well as it does a male.”
McDowell expressed the same concern. The guys at her station wear a mossy, taupe-colored hood underneath their hats; McDowell wears a pink one, a choice all her own, to personalize the macho uniform.
“I just got measured for new gear,” she said, and it will be coming in soon. Until then, it’s the older, manly suit-up.
“It doesn’t fit me too well in the chest part, but it does its job,” she said.
Both women agreed that it’s a great field to be in. There’s no pressure to prove themselves anymore, because by the end of the day, Kohler and McDowell are completing tasks that once were thought to be out of a woman’s reach.
“When people question me, I say, you know what, I don’t want any special treatment from the guys, I want to do what the guys do. I knew what I was getting into,” McDowell said.
“There’s always something new, and there’s always something to learn,” Kohler said. “And the job is always going to be around.”