Allison Ericson, Valdosta Today News Director:
VALDOSTA — On Jan. 2, the female firefighters of the Valdosta Fire Department shared their stories with the media in reference to the tornado on Dec. 29. The VFD is home to four female firefighters; three of them were called to the scene, Lt. Deanna Rowan, Tangela Rowe, and Shannon Fowler.
Fire Chief, Freddie Broome invited the media to hear the VFD’s female firefighter’s stories with hopes of changing the common misconception of firefighting being a predominantly male career.
“Today we want to talk about our female firefighters, one of the challenges that we have in the fire service in general is recruiting and retaining our female firefighters,” Broome said. “Also, we do a poor job identifying them in the fire service, and we do a poor job with promoting the contributions they make to the fire service in general.”
Rowan, Rowe, and Fowler have never viewed their careers as masculine or male oriented. Rowe described the VFD as a family, where everyone works together doing the same job, and to the best of their abilities.
“When you go into a fire scene or whatever is going on, you’re expected to pull your weight just as much as the guys,” Rowe said. “I mean you wouldn’t want to go into a situation and one of your male counterparts need you, and you can’t help them because you’re a girl. You wouldn’t want that to be a problem, so you work just as hard as the guys.”
Rowan has been a firefighter for 15 years and said she chose her service career based off of her father’s military background.
“I knew I’ve always wanted to do it, my dad was military so there really wasn’t an option with a male dominated field and female, our equipment is so advanced now it’s not all about brawn anymore, it’s more about what your equipment can do for you,” Rowan said.
Rowan and Rowe arrived on the same engine and were assigned to building two of Langdale Industries, where they performed a search and rescue, and HAZMAT proceedings. Rowan described the process and standards they must perform when called to a scene.
“It’s hard when you show up and see the devastation and not respond or jump right in, but we have assignments that we all have to do,” Rowan said. “Our task was to clear building two, to make sure there was no personnel trapped in there or any hazards to that building, once that building was cleared we moved to the parking area.”
“We are a team and we are going to do it together, it’s a two in, two out type of thing and it doesn’t matter if I’m with Lt. Rowan or a male lieutenant, it’s a team effort,” Rowe said.
Unlike Rowan, Rowe became a firefighter after joking around with former VFD Chief, J.D. Rice. Rowe said she had a small idea of what firefighting entailed, but one thing she has never seen is a difference in work performance done by a male versus a female.
The male and female firefighters of the VFD are expected to perform the same tasks and assignments when called to a scene.
“We all do the same job, we all have the same objective, and I don’t have a lot of the upper body strength but I use my equipment, I use my personnel, and the resources I have available to me,” Rowan said. “I have determination, and if you’re determined you can do about anything.”
“I know that sometimes they want to do things for you, but to me that’s you doing things for your lieutenant, it’s hard to separate myself as a female,” Rowan said.
Fowler arrived to the post-tornado scene alongside three male co-workers, where they were assigned the tasks of, search, rescue, and removal of hazardous material.
“Fire doesn’t discriminate, so our training can’t either, it doesn’t see male, female, black, white, so we all have to be prepared to do the same job,” Fowler said.
Both, the males and females of the VFD agree that safety is the number one priority of being a firefighter.
“Safety is always paramount, with everyone across the board, things that you think about your family, your loved ones, your crew members, the people on your shift,” Fowler said.
“You want to keep safety the main priority and you try not to get tunnel vision, and it’s hard sometimes, but you try,” Rowe said.
