First All-Female Firefighting Crew Protects MA City

BROCKTON – For the first time in city history, a fire station crew was manned by a group of consisting of all women.

"My opinion is why did it take so long?" said Carol Dawkins, who was Brockton's first woman firefighter, when she joined the Fire Department in 1999. "We were happy that it happened. ... It was a proud moment."

The Fire Department marked the first time that a Brockton fire station crew consisted of only women on Friday night, sending out a tweet stating that "history is being made" in the city, accompanied by a picture of three women assigned to Ladder 2 on the north side. The women included Dawkins, Lt. Heather Angelo, the city's first ranking woman firefighter, and second-year firefighter Katie DuBeau, who's father is also a Brockton firefighter, Lt. Jim DuBeau.

Dawkins and Angelo both said they took overtime on Friday, joining DuBeau for her regularly scheduled shift at Station 2, working the ladder truck. Dawkins said it's something that the three women of the Fire Department mentioned to each other since DuBeau joined the department. Dawkins said most of the time, a crew consists of four people but when staffing is limited, as other firefighters use paid time off, sometimes it's just three.

During Friday evening's shift, there were no major fires or life-threatening emergencies, but the women firefighters responded to a call for a disabled man, who fell to the floor at his home and couldn't get up. The man, who happened to be a retired Boston firefighter, declined to be taken to the hospital, they said.

"We were looking forward to having a fire," said Dawkins, reached on Sunday, while adding that she's happy everyone in the city was safe. "None of us are scared of going into a fire. ... It didn't phase us one bit to lift this guy off the floor. We picked him up. No big deal. That's the way we are trained."

Dawkins, 64, who is planning to retire in the summer, said as a woman firefighter, she has faced some adversity in the past from the rare detractor who would hold her gender against her or make rude comments. But Dawkins said for the vast majority of the time, Brockton firefighters have been accepting of the women, and Dawkins said the ladies of the Fire Department all have each other's backs. Dawkins said she's also used to working in an environment dominated by men, as a military veteran who spent 27 years combined in the Navy, Navy Reserves and Army Reserves, doing mechanics and truck driving.

"I knew how to handle the remarks and the attitude," said Dawkins, a Chicago native who first came to Boston in 1990, buying a house in Brockton four years later with her partner. "I never was thin-skinned or sensitive about the things they say. If they said something offensive, I would put them in their place at that moment. It never had to go beyond that, going up the chain of command to say this person making me feel uncomfortable."

As far as physical limitations, Dawkins said there are no barriers facing women firefighters, since the profession is all about teamwork.

"I lift what my body says I can lift," Dawkins said. "I had someone who said, 'You can't lift 300 pounds.' I said, 'Neither can you.' That's why we work as a crew, not an individual."

Angelo, who's also a veteran of the Army Reserves, became the highest ranking woman in Brockton Fire Department history, when she was promoted to lieutenant in February 2019. After the Fire Department posted the tweet marking the first all-woman crew, along with the picture of the women firefighters beside the ladder truck, Angelo said they received feedback from mothers and daughters who were inspired. Dawkins also said she responded to an incident at the Enterprise Club in Brockton over the weekend, and heard from people who saw the social media post and applauded the trio of women working at the Fire Department.

"Some moms said they showed it to their daughters, and their daughters liked it and said they might be interested in becoming firefighters," Angelo said.

Angelo said her fellow women on the Fire Department have proved that they belong, crediting Dawkins for paving the way.

"When I got on 17 years ago, women were still a new thing," Angelo said. "We had to come in and prove we were here to do same job as (men) and had the same requirements for physical ability and had to go through the same drill school. We had to prove we're here to to do our job just like the guys were. And we didn't expect any different treatment."

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©2019 The Enterprise, Brockton, Mass.

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