NICOLE ST. PIERRE, left, and Ashley Moody are the first two female firefighters to be hired fulltime by Bath Fire Department. Both started within the last three weeks and are busy learning the ropes, memorizing streets and familiarizing themselves with the various pieces of equipment.
Showing it truly is an equal opportunity organization, Bath Fire Department hit a milestone with the hiring of its first fulltime female firefighters.
Two of the three new firefighters recently hired are women, chosen from a pool of more than 30 applicants. But ask these ladies about being the first women and they’ll say their gender has never been a roadblock in their career path.
Nicole St. Pierre, 32, and Ashley Moody, 29, both of Topsham, started with the department April 25 and May 2, respectively. The two have been learning the ropes, memorizing streets and familiarizing themselves with the apparatus, as Bath firefighters have to be able to drive and operate all of the emergency vehicles for full-time status. A third firefighter, Steve Piper, 38, of Brunswick started Friday in his first fulltime firefighter position. A certified Firefighter 1 and 2 and Advanced EMT, he is also a paid on-call member of the Durham Fire Department.
St. Pierre and Moody had to pass an agility test, completing a number of skills in a certain amount of time, simulating actions they may have to do at a fire scene, like swinging a sledgehammer and dragging a dummy to make sure they can pick up and move heavy weight.
“You have to really work on your cardio and strength training and you’ve got to keep up with the guys,” St. Pierre said.
Around 30 people took the agility test and 23 moved onto the written test. Three other women applied with St. Pierre and Moody.
Applicants taking the written exam were given a number of facts about an imaginary city — like population and type of buildings. They had 20 minutes to read it, memorize it, St. Pierre said, “and then the map and facts went away and you had the test that included a significant number of questions about that,” in addition to other fire and EMSbased questions. The top handful of candidates following the oral boards were sent to since-retired Chief Stephen Hinds, for a final decision.
St. Pierre was a junior firefighter when she was in middle school but then pursued a career in the animal care field, serving most recently as the office manager for a veterinary hospital. She began volunteering for Topsham Fire and Rescue as an EMT and, in 2010, moved back to the fire side of the department.
Now an Advanced EMT, as soon as St. Pierre got her EMS license, she knew she wanted to be a full-time firefighter. She loves the excitement, unpredictability and helping people. Her father was a full-time firefighter, as is her husband, and many other family members were firefighters.
“I spent most of my childhood following my dad to the firehouse, going to calls,” St. Pierre said.
Like St. Pierre, Moody has a long-standing history of firefighters in her family. Originally from West Bath, she knew she wanted to work in the medical field after high school but wasn’t sure in what capacity. An uncle, who is now the acting Bath fire chief, Lawrence “Buddy” Renaud, suggested at the time she join the fire department. Starting with EMS, she realized she had a love for the fire side as well.
“I was kind of mesmerized when out on fire calls,” Moody said, and wanted to be involved in the structural attack.
Moody, a firefighter paramedic, said there was a call force department in Bath when she started in 2002. Members of the since dismantled “call force” responded to calls when needed and participated in training certain nights of the week. At that time, she was enrolled in University of Maine’s nursing program and Southern Maine Community College’s medic program.
“I just wanted more,” Moody said as she started the training. “The hotter, the better. The more flames the more exciting it was. When you’re in that situation, you either want more or you completely hate it.
“I think a lot of people think you put on your gear and you run into a building,” she added, “but there are so many other contributing factors: Fire behavior, structure. What type of water? Do you use foam? There are so many variables and so many different elements that can effect the outcome of a situation. It’s kind of like a puzzle that you have to piece together with seconds to figure it out.”
The job is definitely more sophisticated than the general public perceives it to be, Moody said. St. Pierre noted there are so many more synthetics used in building construction today “and what people decorate their houses with, so that the fires are burning hotter and faster and differently than they used to, so there’s lots to learn.”
“There’s always something you don’t know and always something you can train on, which is another reason I find this job so exciting,” Moody said. “We entrust a lot in our partners and our department that we’re a part of and that we’re going to make good decisions as a team and have a good outcome. Firefighting is not very individualized.”
While definitely a minority as female firefighters, “it seems like nowadays people are very supportive of it,” St. Pierre said of her experience with fire departments. They have been very equal opportunity, she said, and “I think as long as you can come in there and show that you have an idea of what you’re doing,” women will be as respected as men.
“I feel like we’ve been very welcomed here and supported,” said St. Pierre.
Renaud removed himself from the hiring process, but said last week he is happy as interim chief to “have the opportunity to embrace this endeavor,” which he believes will positively impact the delivery of the service the historically all-male department provides.
“I don’t think we could have found two better candidates to start this process of having females in our service,” he said.
Pursuing firefighting has never been about trailblazing for Moody, but about getting to do a job she’s always wanted to do full time.
“Regardless of my gender, I’m very thankful that we were given the opportunity to be able to fulfill our dream,” she said, adding that as far as your gender goes, “if you’re passionate and really want to do something, you shouldn’t have that issue blocking your way.”
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