Allan Appel Photo
Mentor Vega with Williams, at right, at Monday’s swearing-in.
As Jasmine Williams crossed the stage, Fire Chief Allyn Wright grasped her arm and raised her hand along with his. “I always do this,” he said, and proclaimed, “Female!”
Williams was one of 18 new firefighters who sworn in on the Green Monday evening before a crowd of more than 100 friends, family, and admirers. She was the only female of the 18.
She was the class president, too.
Fire chiefs don’t get to yell “female!” too often in most departments, including New Haven’s, which is about 95 percent male.
“Being a firefighter is more than rushing into burning buildings,” she told her class. “This is where you sweat and bleed. This is where you find yourself.”
She was pinned by her mentor, someone who knows what it’s like to be a female firefighter in a man’s preserve: Bridgeport firefighter Sheila Vega.
Vega and Williams grew up together. When their mothers took their kids on a Disneyland tour, young Jasmine was always the responsible kid, the one the moms put in charge of the other kids, Vega said.
“She’s both driven and outgoing and giving,” and she works well with others, Vega said of Williams just after the oath-taking. “You need that in the fire department. You live with these guys in the firehouse.”
Lansing firefighter David Odoms flew in to pin his nephew Maurice Edwards, and present him with a silver axe.
Williams’ group of 18 graduates were part of a larger class of 43. Of those, 25 already had EMT training and after four months of training, graduated and are already serving. Williams’ group went on for another seven weeks of EMT training in Monday’s graduation and swearing in.
Since 1995, New Haven has required all firefighters to be EMT-certified and maintain that certification for the life of their employment, according to Assistant Chief for Operations Chief Matthew Macarelli.
The department has been short-staffed. Once a newly appointed class of 34 recruits graduates in six months, the department expects to reach its full budgeted strength of 356 firefighters.
City Chief Administrative Officer Michael Carter said that women constitute about 5 percent of the New Haven department, comparable to the percentage in New York City. (Click here for a story about female firefighters in New Haven and New York.)
As Jasmine Williams crossed the stage, Fire Chief Allyn Wright grasped her arm and raised her hand along with his. “I always do this,” he said, and proclaimed, “Female!”
Williams and her colleagues like Peter Loomis (at left in photo) have already been on the job for two weeks. Loomis, who hails from Oxford, is stationed at the Lombard Street firehouse and has made the transition from working in flooring to saving peoples’ lives. He pronounced the work “exciting.”
Before shifting to firefighting, Williams worked as a case manager for people with intellectual disabilities in Bridgeport.
City spokesperson Laurence Grotheer said the arrival of the new firefighters is already contributing to lowering city costs. “The new firefighters are starting to fill shifts as straight time” (as opposed to overtime). That alleviates the staff shortages that have for a long time been addressed by firefighters serving overtime, he said.
In just the last two weeks, as Williams and her colleagues have been on the job, Carter estimated that department overtime costs have plummeted from $175,000 a week to $90,000.