BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) - A Georgia county has its first all-female firefighting crew.
Three female Glynn County Fire Rescue firefighters have served together in the same engine company for the past several weeks, The Brunswick News reported.
Capt. Elizabeth Hawkins, Syndal Tillotson and Brianna Depp share the same 24-hour shift and staff Engine 2 in the coastal county.
“It’s fun whenever we pull up on a scene and the women say, ‘Look, it’s all females on that fire truck,’” said Hawkins, 51. “That’s kind of cool.”
Hawkins says she encounters people who ask, “Do you actually fight fire?”
“There’s always doubt, even just for being a female in the fire department, both from males and females,” Hawkins said. “There’s still surprise that there are women who actually do this.”
She and her colleagues are trying to change that type of thinking. To that end, she and Hawkins are involved in the fire department’s youth explorers program.
“We have quite a few girls in the explorers,” Hawkins said. “So when they see us all working together, or when the youth see us when we go out on a call, it shows they can do this job too if they really want to. And there’s a couple in Explorers who do want to do this.”
For Tillotson, getting behind the wheel of the big old fire truck is a childhood dream come true.
“That’s the big question everyone has is about driving the fire truck,” Tillotson said. “I mean, c’mon. I think everybody, when they were kids, wanted to drive the lights and sirens. And believe me, it is just as much fun as you think it is. I had a little boy say, ‘Can you really drive that fire truck?’ I was like, ‘Shoot. It’s in the job description. I better be able to drive it.’”
Please read our comment policy before commenting.