When Chief Walter Coakley saw the roster for Engine 4 in South Buffalo on Thursday, he did a double take.
"Holy cow, it's all women today," he thought.
And then he headed to the fire station at Abbott Road and Hollywood Avenue to check it out. "I called over and said I'm coming for lunch," he joked.
Four women working on the same truck is rare in the Buffalo Fire Department, which is only 5 percent female. There are usually no more than two women on schedule at once, he said. The scheduling of four women on Engine 4 happened unintentionally as a result of call-ins and vacations.
For the four women, three firefighters and one lieutenant, the day felt like a normal one but included better conversation and more laughter.
"We've been laughing since we came in the door this morning," said Lt. Kate Keane.
In addition to Keane, the three other women on duty were Sue Farry, Michelle Burke and Debbie Ernest. They've all been firefighters for more than a decade, and each follows a line of family firefighters. Engine 4 is Burke's home station, but the other three come from stations across the city.
The four said that they enjoyed a chance to get together and catch up and that the atmosphere was different with all women. Ernest joked that she wishes there could be a permanent scheduling of all women.
Aside from the social component, the job is the same for men and women. Female firefighters take the same written and physical exams as male firefighters and undergo the same training.
"Just because you're a woman, they don't make it easy for us," said Ernest, who has been a firefighter for 14 years.
They're held to the same standard as men in every aspect -- including cutting their hair for training. When the four began, women had to have hair just as short as the men, mainly so that air masks would fit properly. Some commissioners became more lenient on that rule as the masks have evolved, Coakley said.
Although each woman said she experienced different treatment from men in the beginning, such as strange looks or being ignored, they all said they rarely experience discrimination on the job. Attitudes toward female firefighters have evolved over time, they said.
"Over the years, the guys know you and what you can do. You get a lot of respect," Ernest said.
Two of the Buffalo Fire Department's 16 chiefs are women. Across the country, female firefighters are becoming more common, Coakley said. Women also tend to get promoted at a higher rate, he said, then noted it's because they're smarter, drawing laughter.
Each of the women got involved for her own reasons, but all have a family history of firefighting. For example, Burke's grandfather, father, brother and husband are all firefighters.
And although Keane, the lieutenant, didn't plan to be a firefighter, she ended up following in the footsteps of her mother. Margaret Keane was part of Buffalo's first class of female firefighters and the first female deputy commissioner of the department. Keane was planning to become a teacher but decided on a whim to take the test with Burke, she said.
That means Keane's children -- two boys and a girl -- have two generations of female firefighters to look up to. To them, seeing a female firefighter is not a rarity, but a normality.
Said Keane: "We have to tell them boys can do the job, too."
Copyright 2012 - The Buffalo News, N.Y.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
