Retired Va. Firefighter Recalls Challenges as First Female

April 16--Even though she doesn't always consider herself a pioneer of women's rights, Linda Eagle has to acknowledge the ground she broke in Lynchburg in the 1980's.

In her eyes, the first uniformed female member of the Lynchburg Fire Department is just someone who did her job well, climbed up the ladder and won respect for herself and other women in the process.

"I don't know if they had any concerns about whether we could do the job, but I never did," said Eagle in an interview Thursday.

Eagle, 56, retired in January and Thursday reflected on some of the hurdles she faced, beginning with her hiring by the Lynchburg Fire Marshal's Office in 1980.

Eagle stuck around in the office for two years.

"They felt pretty safe because I wouldn't be living in the stations, I wouldn't be on a 24-hour shift ... until I put in for a transfer and then things changed," Eagle said.

When she transferred to ride with a medic unit, Eagle said she had to undergo training she knew was simply because she was a woman.

"I think it was mainly what they were concerned about was being in the station with men, and their wives getting upset," Eagle said.

"What would we do if we met them on the street?"

She chuckled, recalling those interviews.

"It was just ridiculous stuff," she said. "It seems funny now."

She later transferred to fire suppression.

"At that time that was the only way you could advance in the department, was to come off of the medic unit and go into suppression," she said.

And that brought a new set of challenges and a new set of questions, since she would be spending more time in the stations and doing more physical work.

"I knew I needed to prove myself to gain their respect. I could kind of understand where they were coming from," she said even of those who doubted her ability or her wherewithal to stick around.

"It had been all men there for how many years? At least 150 years. It didn't upset me," she said.

But it did motivate her to prove she was every bit as good as her male counterparts.

"The old adage, 'you've got to be twice as good to be seen as equal' is still pretty prevalent," she said.

And in exchange for some of those who doubted her and the other women hired around that time, Eagle said there were those who always believed she could do anything.

"When I would fight fire downtown, they'd let me do anything. We just went in and fought fire," she said.

"I was just one of the guys down there."

Lynchburg firefighter Bryan Barber recalled the years he served with Eagle, calling her "one of the best captains we've had."

"There was never a dull moment," he laughed.

Barber, who also ran with Eagle during her time with the Monelison Volunteer Fire Department, recalled a very competent woman who had a reputation for getting things done.

"When the battalion chiefs had a project, they would send it to Linda, because they knew she would complete the task," he said, to which Eagle chuckled.

"They might not like the results."

Eagle stuck around several years past what was supposed to be her retirement date in 2007, and even now hasn't given up firefighting, running with Brookville-Timberlake Volunteer Fire Department.

Looking back on her career, she recalled it went slowly in the beginning, but became a blur.

"Sometimes it seems like 32 years, and sometimes it doesn't."

Copyright 2013 - The News & Advance, Lynchburg, Va.