CEDAR FALLS, IA -- The city's first female firefighter has become the city's first female command staff management officer within the department.
Sharon Regenold became the department's first ever firefighter with two X chromosomes when hired in 1995.
Last week she joined the managerial ranks when she was promoted to station commander.
Don't look to Regenold to champion her gender's potential in the traditionally male-dominated profession. She always wanted to just be one of the guys on shift.
At the station she jokes around with the other firefighters just as much as any "guy" does.
"My favorite part is the camaraderie," Regenold said of her job. "You get together and accomplish a task together. We call ourselves a family, but add that it's dysfunctional."
Regenold's new position will be as station commander in charge of fire prevention education and training. It's a five-day-a-week, eight-hours-a-day job, as opposed to the 24-hour shifts she's run as a firefighter.
She has taken a strong role in Safety City and other education events.
The training position changed about a year ago. In the past, the training officer had done most or all of the training themselves. Now the training officer acts as more of a training manager. Regenold will find the best specialist in an area to train the others, then handle scheduling.
"The position she's in does two things. It does training and fire safety education. She's had experience in both areas," said Fire Chief Steve Mitchell.
Regenold first became interested in firefighting when she was working in a physical therapy clinic. There she met Sam Webb, a Waterloo firefighter. He had used some office space in the building, and the two of them frequently got the chance to talk. The more she heard about Webb's profession, the more she became interested. Webb eventually urged her to try to become a firefighter in Waterloo.
At about the same time, Regenold came across former Cedar Falls Fire Chief Jerry Llewellyn. They talked about firefighting careers, and he encouraged her to apply in Cedar Falls.
"Without those two, I never would have gotten into it. It's not like I was playing with fire trucks when I was a kid," Regenold said.
Back when Regenold started with the fire department, she hadn't yet married. The department had a barracks sleeping area designed for a male-only staff. They walled off a sleeping area using metal lockers to give her a little privacy.
"They always called it the Ubben addition," Regenold recalls. Her maiden name is Ubben.
When the fire station was remodeled last year, they added a small room off the main sleeping quarters for Regenold or any other female firefighter that comes along.
The city now has a female volunteer firefighter as well.
Regenold would like to ignore, or at least downplay, the fact that she's the first female in the department and in management. However, Mitchell thinks her success is important to the organization.
"I think it shows we're a progressive department, and we will be able to use it as a recruiting tool," Mitchell said. "We get very few, if any, females who take our entry testing, if any."
Last year the department had 60 people take the tests, 59 of them male.
