By Daniel Borunda
El Paso Times
El Paso, Tex. — Karen V. Ramos was the first firefighter in her family.
Jennifer Rubio and her younger brother, Joel, are both firefighters with the El Paso Fire Department.
“I don’t think my brother is following in my footsteps. But I got here first,” said Rubio, mentioning a friendly sibling competition.
Ramos and Rubio are among 15 female firefighters in the El Paso Fire Department, which has tripled the number of women firefighters in its ranks from a decade ago. There are currently a total of about 860 firefighters/paramedics in the department.
It hasn’t been easy. Firefighting can be a physically, mentally and emotionally challenging profession where women until about four decades ago had made few inroads.
Ramos and Rubio recently spoke about their experiences in recognition of Women in Fire Service appreciation month.
Ramos, who was born in El Paso and grew up in Juárez, traced her inspiration to her father, who worked for a private ambulance company in Mexico. As a 10-year-old girl, her dad sometimes let her ride in the ambulance with him if there wasn’t a patient.
Both women were accepted to the El Paso Fire Academy after passing the firefighter and emergency medical technician accreditation program at El Paso Community College.
Rubio first joined the EPCC firefighting program just to see if she enjoyed firefighting as a career.
“It was physical. I didn’t want an office job,” she said.
About five years ago, the Fire Department, as a cost-cutting measure, did away with the traditional six-month academy for applicants off the street. The Fire Academy began accepting only trainees who were already certified firefighters/EMTs in the state of Texas, such as graduates from the EPCC program.
Following the Fire Department’s merger with the city’s Emergency Medical Services years ago, members of the Fire Department are each required to have basic certification as a firefighter and basic EMT certification.
There was a two-year wait for Ramos to get into the EPCC certification program, she said.
During the wait, she took part in physical training offered by the Fire Academy intended to help potential applicants. The pre-training is twice a week, includes topics such as nutrition and proper hydration, and is open to men and women.
Training at the academy is rigorous. It is not uncommon for men and women to drop out. Trainees have to do things such as carry a 45-pound pack while climbing flights of stairs, hoisting roof ladders, dragging a life-size dummy to safety and learning the medical and technical aspects of the job.
“The benchmark is the same,” said Training Chief Sam Peca in his office at the Fire Academy in Ascarate Park. “It is the same physical training. In essence, gender doesn’t play a part in the training or job specifications.
“We have developed a program to meet the benchmark,” Peca said. “As long as they don’t quit on themselves, that is the big thing.”
The U.S. Fire Administration reported there are about 10,800 women who are professional firefighters nationwide, or about only 4 percent of all firefighters. There are an additional 32,000 women estimated to work in volunteer fire departments. The Fire Administration said the first known woman firefighter in the U.S. was Molly Williams, an African-American slave who was part of firefighting company in New York City in 1815.
Because of the job’s nature, men and women live together at the fire station. Men and women have separate locker rooms and restrooms.
Ramos, 29, who has been with the Fire Department for about five years, said not all of her male co-workers were welcoming at first.
“My first year a lot of people tried to discourage me,” Ramos recalled. “Some of the guys were really bad. They are good now but back then they would tell me, ‘You don’t belong here.’ They would tell me in private. And it was the younger guys. The older guys were respectful.”
Ramos has since earned her peers’ respect. She is the first woman in the department’s firefighter combat challenge team, which competes in firefighting-related events against teams from other departments from around the world.
Rubio, 25, who has been with the Fire Department for three years, said she did not have any problems and that all rookies face teasing and scrutiny.
“It’s the same for everybody,” Rubio said. “I think it was easier for me. I think they picked on the guys more.”
Peca said that women who apply to be firefighters sometimes face misgivings from their own families who don’t see firefighting as a career for women.
“Maybe that is an issue here in the Hispanic community because it’s not seen that (firefighting) is something for women,” Peca said. “We have to make a concentrated effort to change those perceptions.”
There is currently a class of 10 trainees at the Fire Academy. All are men. Three weeks ago, two women were among the 49 firefighters who graduated from Fire Academy. The class valedictorian was a woman, Sarah Sandoval.
Fire Department officials said Sandoval wasn’t available for an interview because she is still in an introductory probationary status since she is a new hire.
Ramos remembered that she once met a woman at a career fair who is now also a firefighter. The secret is having a “commitment” to succeed, she said. Ramos’ brother is currently applying to be a firefighter also.
“Don’t let nobody discourage you,” Ramos said. “If you think you can do it, you can do it.”
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