Making history: Meet the Columbus Fire Department’s first all female fire crew

Four Columbus firefighters made history this summer on Fire Engine 11.

On Aug. 24, they were the first ever all-female fire crew at the Columbus Department of Fire and EMS, according to the Department’s Facebook post.

The odds were against them. Only about 90,000 women, or 9% of the U.S. firefighting force, were firefighters in 2020, according to a September report by the National Fire Protection Agency. There were about 24,500 fire departments that year, which means an average of fewer than four women per department.

But opportunity knocked in Columbus, and Lt. Anne Land, Sgt. Jennifer Smith, firefighter and EMT Ashley Threatt and fire medic Jenny Baldwin answered.

“The opportunity presented itself, so we decided to put all females on the truck,” Land said.

Baldwin didn’t have to work on the ambulance that day, so she was able to join them on the firetruck, according to Land.

When Threatt was told of the decision to roster an all-female crew, her response was, “Let’s do it!”

Threatt said she liked the look on people’s faces when the all-female crew got off the truck.

Women have been fighting fires for more than 200 years, according to Women in Fire, a non-profit advocacy group. But firefighting remains a male-dominated profession.

Land said she wants to show younger women firefighters coming up that, “...whatever they want to do, they can do.”

Yet, what could make someone want to walk into 300-400 degree fires carrying 75 lbs of gear and equipment up multiple stories of a building?

“Public safety is a calling,” said Smith. “I think it’s just something that you always kind of dream about becoming a part of.”

Smith said that the Fire Department becomes almost like a second family.

Land and Smith said that one of the most rewarding parts of the job is knowing they made a difference in someone’s life or possibly have saved someone’s life.

However, with the good parts of the job come the bad.

“The worst part is telling people that their loved one has passed. You know not being able to save somebody that you want to save,” said Land. “We see a lot of tragedy. You know, car wrecks, house fires, people dying.”