Today, March 8, is International Women’s Day. As we celebrate the hard work, and dedication to service that all of the women of LCFR have demonstrated over the years, we would also like to take a walk back through the history of women in the fire service.
Women have been fighting fires for over 200 years. Molly Williams, the first documented female firefighter, was a slave who served with the Oceanus Engine Company #11 in New York City. Molly, called Volunteer 11, was said to be “as good a fire laddie as many of the boys.” She is especially remembered for her work during a blizzard in 1818, when many of the men were ill from an influenza outbreak and unable to help.
Lillie Hitchcock was another well-known firefighter of the 19th century. A San Francisco heiress, ‘Firebelle Lil’ was fascinated by firefighters her whole life, and would often chase them to the scene of a fire. She was named an honorary member of the Knickerbocker Engine Company #5 in 1859 after helping the company drag their engine to a fire.
Silver Spring, Maryland, and Los Angeles, California, each had their own women’s volunteer fire companies in the 1910s, and King County in California and Woodbine, Texas developed their own all-women fire companies in the 1960s.
The first female career firefighters were then hired in the 1970s. Sandra Forcier was hired in 1973 as a Public Safety Officer, a combination police officer and firefighter, in North Carolina. Then, Judith Livers became the first known woman to become a career firefighter when she
was hired by the Arlington County, Virginia, Fire Department. Both women retired at the rank of Battalion Chief. And then we have Ruth E. Capello, who was the first woman to become a Fire Chief in the United States in Oregon in 1973.
Today, women make up less than 10% of firefighters in the United States. This International Women’s Day we celebrate the women who paved the way for the next generation of female firefighters to join our ranks.