Fire Station Shift Consisted Of All-Female Crew For The First Time In History

Jun 29, 2020 by apost team

A fire station in California made national news after staffing an all-female crew for the first time ever. The Pasadena Fire Department notified its four female staff members of their expected schedule, but little did anyone know the firehouse would be filled with only females that day.

Working the same shift together the next morning, these women realized they made history in their fire department. What may seem like regular scheduling for some made a huge difference in the lives of women around the world.

Due to overtime and vacation schedules, the station didn't intend for the all-female crew to occur. Yet, no other thought was given to this unique setup at the time of scheduling. This led to the entire engine staff of Station 34 to consist of only female firefighters, reports Pasadena News. Not only was the crew made up of all females, but even the commander at the time, Captain Tricia Rodriguez, was a woman.

Consisting of Rodriguez, two firefighters, and an engineer, these four women took on a task that would have once been considered impossible. Posting a photo to Facebook to commemorate the one-of-a-kind experience, the station had no idea just how much attention it would garner. Captioning the photo, "FIRST all-female crew in history of Pasadena Fire Department riding together on Engine 34," this is a moment that will go down in social media history.

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The U.S. Department of Labor certifies that only 4 percent of firefighters nationwide are women, which rises to 14 percent when policewomen and military members are included.

Government Technology magazine notes that even many other male-dominant fields, such as construction and farming, have higher percentages of female employees compared to the field of firefighting. These statistics conclude that the Pasadena Fire Department is above that average with a 5 percent makeup of female firefighters employed through their station.

According to Captain Tricia Rodriguez, "The message to anyone is, if you have a dream or a vision, you can achieve it." This is something that all of these women have envisioned growing up and set as an ultimate goal to achieve. Rodriguez says it was made possible, because "We trained, and we studied, and we took the same test everybody else did and we didn’t give up."

Let us know what you thought of this empowering story, and pass this message on to everyone you know as proof that unimaginable things can happen!