Fire trucks are one of my son’s current obsessions. He has an entire fire company’s worth of vehicles in his playroom. He’s visited fire houses and fire museums, and managed to collect three different Junior Firefighter badges and five hats. He and his teddy bear “rescue” me on a regular basis.
It was thus with special joy, as the lesbian mom of a Junior Firefighter, that I read today of the expected selection of an openly lesbian fire chief in San Diego. Tracy Jarman, a 22-year veteran of the department, was nominated this week by Mayor Jerry Sanders. Confirmation is expected at next Monday’s City Council meeting. Chief Joanne Hayes-White of San Francisco would be the only woman in the U. S. running a larger department.
If you have daughters who are into firefighting, or want to expose your kids to the idea of non-traditional careers for women, check out the Women in the Fire Service (WFS) Web site. In addition to news and job listings for actual firefighters, the site offers a history of women in firefighting and details on becoming a firefighter that are sure to be useful for school reports. If you have older teen girls, check out WFS’s special Camp Blaze project, a summer camp for qualified 16 to 19-year-old girls to learn about the fire service and have fun. Who knows? You could be raising the next Tracy Jarman or Joanne Hayes-White.