Women throughout St. Charles Parish are proving men are not the only gender able to contribute to the parish’s ranks of volunteer firefighters. St. Charles Parish is now host to numerous female volunteer firefighters serving all over the parish, who are shattering stereotypes as they help stamp out fires and save lives – all for the good of the community.
Luling’s Paigh Hills is one such local woman, who was able to turn her initial interest in volunteer firefighting work at the Luling Volunteer Fire Department into a full-time career.
Hills, 27, fire began volunteering in Luling as a local firefighter around six years ago. She liked the work so much that she would eventually become a full-time firefighter for the New Orleans Fire Department. She continues to work as a volunteer firefighter in Luling when off from her full-time firefighting gig in New Orleans.
“I transitioned into working [at the New Orleans Fire Department] as a career firefighter in 2018,” Hills said.
The firefighting profession, Hills explained, is surprisingly well-staffed with women who perform much of the day-to-day administrative work necessary to keep a typical fire station open and running. The firefighting role in most fire departments, she admitted, is still largely a male-dominated position – but it’s one she is proving doesn’t have to be.
“I’ve gotten nothing but positive comments [after arriving on a scene],” Hills said of her firefighting job. “A lot of people love to see [women in the firefighting role]; They’ll say things like ‘oh, we didn’t know there were women firefighters’ – that’s such a good thing to see.”
Hills believes sometimes women may shy away from becoming a firefighter due to the perceived physical demands of the work. Women, though, should not let those notions stop them from trying firefighting work out, she commented.
“It’s not only a man’s job – it’s something a typical female can overcome,” Hills said, speaking from her experiences with firefighting work. “It’s not that much of a physical demand.”
Paradis resident Hannah Rawls, a 12-year female volunteer firefighter with the Paradis Volunteer Fire Department, agrees with Hills’ assessment. Women may sometimes have self-limiting beliefs surrounding the physical requirements of firefighting work, but Rawls said this can easily be squashed once they experience firefighting for themselves.
“Yes, it takes a little work…but when you repetitively train for it and you’re doing [the work] – you realize you can do it,” Rawls said. “I think these days it’s becoming more commonplace [to find women as firefighters].”
Firefighting is a shared passion for Rawls, 35, and her family. She is a third-generation volunteer firefighter; her grandfather was one of the Paradis Volunteer Fire Department’s founding members, later joined by her father. Rawls even married a firefighter – her husband is also a volunteer firefighter in Paradis, as well as a professional firefighter in Terrytown.
“Women in general have this innate ability to calm in high stress situations, even when they are highly stressed [themselves] – and that is more powerful than they may think,” Rawls said.
Sadie Peters, 25, is a fourth-year volunteer firefighter with the Hahnville Fire Department. Her fiancée and several members of his immediate family are firefighters, which is how she first gained exposure to work around the fire station.
“I realized, once I got into it, that there was so much more that goes into the actual fire service besides just fighting fires,” Peters said.
Early on in her role as a volunteer firefighter, Peters said she began to realize firefighters play an integral part in assisting Emergency Medical Services (EMS) in responding to calls, particularly when EMS receives high call volumes. Local fire stations also respond to chemical leak incidents in nearby chemical plants. Firefighters also often help following vehicular accidents, sometimes extracting accident victims from vehicles after severe crashes.
Women, in Peters’ observation, bring a different dynamic to firefighting that can oftentimes help improve the overall effectiveness of a fire station.
“The women can keep things a little bit more organized and bring different ideas,” Peters said.
Despite women often having a lower body weight than men, Peters said this is not necessarily a physical barrier to working with firefighting equipment. The Hahnville volunteer said she has observed many female firefighters move and lift firefighting equipment with ease.
“I have met some powerhouse women in the fire service that make it look like they’re throwing a bag of air over their shoulder, but they’re doing the same thing as the guys,” Peters said. “I do think that women in a certain sense have a lot of upper hand. A lot of women have a very strong core, and if that is something you have worked on and maintained, that’s the foundation of being able to be a good firefighter and contribute on a fire ground scene.”
Wow! Great story about the new crop of women firefighters. I say “new” because I was sworn into FDNY as a firefighter way back in 1982 and retired as a Fire Marshal in 2000. From reading their stories I know these women will go on to inspire young girls to want to become firefighters because of their examples and I thank them for their service. However, I just want to mention the National Firefighter Registry for Cancer (CDC/NIOSH) encourages ALL firefighters, but especially women, volunteer and minority firefighters to register and fill out the voluntary, confidential survey. An additional incentive to answering the survey questions is that firefighters will learn ways in which to protect themselves from exposures to carcinogens not only while on the fire ground, but more importantly, while back in their respective firehouses/stations. Here are two links: NFR.CDC.GOV CDC.GOV/NFR