Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 29, 1993 TAG: 9308290063
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But she does think of herself as part of a family.
Four years ago, Firestone, 25, took a job with the department because she wanted to get paid for work she already enjoyed - she had several years' experience as a volunteer with Troutville's Fire Department.
She was the second woman to join, signing on two months after Diane Edwards broke the department's 135-year-old gender barrier.
Firestone says she's still dealing with preconceived notions of a woman's place in the firefighting ranks.
"Being a female, most of the guys want to protect you," she said.
She has had to put up with firefighters a bit too eager to help out because they assume she needs help, a lack of confidence in her ability to do certain jobs and outsiders' disbelief in a woman firefighter.
At the scene of a fire, dressed in jacket and helmet, people have approached her and asked point-blank, "Are you a female?"
She takes it in stride, she said. Driving trucks, operating pumps, lugging hose, being in charge of a fire scene: "Being responsible for something big. . . . I have to be able to do those things, or I shouldn't be here."
"Some people say you've got to have the guts for it, and some don't," said Firestone, who continues to serve with Troutville's volunteers.
Firestone believes one of the reasons she was hired was because she had emergency medical training - paramedic experience - from her Troutville rescue squad work, and the Salem department was just beginning to give its members emergency medical training at the time. She also said the fact that she is a woman may have played to her advantage.
Salem started administering an agility test to Fire Department applicants in 1991 - after Firestone was already on the force.
Edwards, 33, Salem's first female firefighter, passed Roanoke's agility test and was offered a job, but not until after she had accepted the Salem position.
She declined to be interviewed at length, although she admitted it's taken several years to overcome some prejudices within the department. Edwards has been on leave since she was injured in an on-the-job accident last winter.
"I think women should be in the fire service - if that's what they want," Edwards said. "If you're just doing it to prove a point, then you don't belong there.
"I love the job; I love being a firefighter; I love what it stands for . . . and it's good pay."
Salem Fire Chief Danny Hall said newly hired Salem firefighters are paid $19,800 yearly to work 42-hour weeks. Most applicants come with previous volunteer experience, he said.
It's tough to get the job, Hall said. There is little turnover. On average, Hall said, about one person leaves every four years for another job. "People come here - they stay."
Once they're on the staff, any newcomer - man or woman - receives a bit of hassling, the grunt jobs, normal indoctrination, he said.
Differences - like gender - are put aside in the name of professionalism, he said.
"We had to make some major adjustments" when Edwards and Firestone were hired, Hall said. "We had to put locks on the bathroom doors."
by CNB