By Sarah Hoye, Reporter
Melanie Coon and Buddy Jaudon, Contributors
Tampa Tribune (Florida)
Copyright 2007 The Tribune Co. Publishes The Tampa Tribune
TAMPA — Instead of fighting fires, Judy Crumbley, the first female firefighter hired in Hillsborough County, is tearing apart her mother’s bathroom.
She’s not sad about having retired in March; doesn’t belabor her role as pioneer. She’s just happy she made the right decision 31 years ago.
“It turned out to be the best thing that I’ve ever done,” said Crumbley, 50, whose last post was as battalion chief at the Summerfield Station south of Riverview. “To have a career as long as mine was and to always enjoy going to work was a blessing I hope everyone can find.”
At a time when women struggled to enter male-dominated careers, Crumbley, a tomboy who grew up with two older brothers, didn’t think much about standing out.
She was working at a Brandon gas station and taking classes at the University of South Florida when she decided to give firefighting a try. After a training night, the fire chief in Brandon offered her a job as a volunteer. With one condition: She had to cut her hair.
“The next day I threw a 24-inch ponytail on his desk,” she said, laughing. “He kept that for a while.”
Being among the first on the scene at fires, accidents and medical emergencies gave Crumbley a holistic view of human travails. She helped a 400-pound woman stuck naked in a bathtub, walked into a blood-drenched apartment, delivered babies.
“Have I had sleepless nights? You bet. It’s not for everybody, it’s not just a job,” she said. “Life is way too short to be unhappy. I know how quickly the day can end.”
She thrived on the excitement, but relied on fear to keep herself and her crew safe.
“I hate roller coasters, and I won’t jump out of a perfectly good airplane,” she said. “I was scared all the time, and when you’re scared, your senses are on high alert and you pay attention.”
Hired by the county in 1976 after months of service training and volunteer firefighting, Crumbley was 19 when she became one of the six paid firefighters at the Palm River Volunteer Fire Department. She earned about $7,200 a year.
Like many other firefighters, she was dually trained as an emergency medical technician. Later, she advanced that training and became a paramedic able to administer medication.
“There were no problems whatsoever; we opened our hands to her,” said Apollo Beach Station Capt. Peter Byrne, who worked with Crumbley from the start. “I never remember a bad moment with her. She didn’t have to make you do anything; [her crew would] go out of their way for her.”
The story was different for other female firefighters in Tampa and around the country. In 1977, a class-action lawsuit was brought against New York City and its fire department for discrimination against women. That grabbed attention, making sexual harassment of female firefighters part of the national conversation.
Crumbley heard stories about incidents involving Tampa women but was thankful to be just another member of the team in Palm River.
“The only thing special about me was the chesticles,” she said. “My chief didn’t want to play up me being a woman, and I agreed with that.”
Today, there are approximately 6,140 career female firefighters across the nation, according to Women in the Fire Service, a nonprofit network providing education, support and advocacy for fire service women. As of 2006, 88 of the 825 firefighters in Hillsborough County and 32 of Tampa Fire Rescue’s 579 sworn firefighters were women.
As a child, Crumbley’s favorite book was “The Fire Cat,” about a cat named Pickles who wanted to fight fires, recalled her mother, Patricia.
She wasn’t at all surprised when her daughter announced she wanted to become a firefighter.
“She was the first female, but it really didn’t get to be an issue,” said Patricia, a retired registered nurse. “She’s a very focused, giving and dependable person.”
Just because she’s retired doesn’t mean Crumbley, who lives in Riverview, is taking it easy. She plans to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity, travel, continue to drive her mother and 97-year-old grandmother on errands and to doctor’s appointments, and work on home improvement projects.
“I’ve seen terribly horrible things,” she said. “But I take what I can from the satisfaction of knowing I gave a situation everything I had.”