Woman rises in NLV fire department ranks

David Kihara

Monday, Dec. 27, 2004 | 11:15 a.m.

When Terri Davis was a rookie firefighter at North Las Vegas Firehouse 51 in 1992, she felt she had to demonstrate time and again that she could do the same work as her male colleagues.

At the time, she was just one of two women in the 80-member North Las Vegas Fire Department. Davis recalls that during her first year as a firefighter, she was often assigned to man the hydrant at the scene of a fire -- one of the least threatening responsibilities for a firefighter.

"I've had to prove myself to more than one person," said Davis, who was appointed last week as the acting fire chief of the North Las Vegas Fire Department.

Davis is the first woman in the 50-year history of the North Las Vegas Fire Department to be appointed as an acting fire chief.

The former chief, Jim Stubler, is retiring as of Dec. 31 after 32 years of service. Although the city of North Las Vegas is currently searching for a full-time replacement, Davis did not apply for the position because she thought she did not have enough administrative experience, she said.

"I think it's quite an accomplishment to ascend from firefighter to acting chief, and she did it because of her abilities," North Las Vegas City Manager Greg Rose said Thursday. "She has a tremendous amount of experience and is the best person for the position of acting chief."

Approximately 60 people from across the nation have applied for the position of fire chief for the North Las Vegas Fire Department, and Rose said he will recommend someone to the North Las Vegas City Council in February.

A new chief will likely be installed by March, giving Davis more than two months as acting fire chief for the department.

In that time, she will join the ranks of female chiefs of fire departments in America such as Joanne Hayes-White, the chief of the San Francisco Fire Department, or Bonnie Bleskacheck, the chief of the Minneapolis Fire Department. Both Hayes-White and Blaskacheck were appointed this year.

"There are more women in the department now, but it will always be dominated by men," Davis said. There are 10 women currently working for the North Las Vegas Fire Department, seven of whom are firefighters. The North Las Vegas Fire Department employs 147 people.

The largest fire department in the state, Clark County Fire Department, has 40 non-secretarial staff members who are women, but only half of them are active firefighters, Bob Leinbach, spokesman for the department, said today. The remaining 20 work as inspectors, engineers, deputy chiefs and other positions.

That's out of 685 employees at the Clark County Fire Deaprtment, Leinbach said.

Las Vegas Fire & Rescue, which has a total of 490 employees, employs 30 women firefighters, Tim Syzmanski, that department's spokesman, said.

The number of woman firefighters at Henderson Fire Department was unavailable as the department did not return the Sun's phone calls this morning.

There are a total of 21 women fire chiefs in the United States, out of a total of 32,000 fire departments, said Debra Amesqua, the chief of the Madison Fire Department in Wisconsin and the president of Women Chief Fire Officers Association, an organization for women firefighters that offers support and training.

"Women chiefs have to come into an all male-dominated environment, and it can be very difficult," Amesqua said.

Even male firefighters agree that it is quite difficult to reach a high position in fire departments because it has traditionally been a career sought and filled by men.

"Twenty years ago it was a rare occasion to see a chief who was a woman, but now we've got some and they are real leaders," said Bob DiPoli, president of the International Fire Chiefs Association, the 12,000-member association of fire chiefs and emergency response officers.

Yet the acceptance of women within fire departments did not come without a fight, DiPoli said.

"Even a few years back, there would be a few guys who would cry foul if a woman was appointed," he said.

Women firefighters have also faced sexual harassment on a regular basis while on the job, according to a 1995 report by the Women in Fire Service, a nonprofit organization made up of women firefighters and emergency response professionals.

The report surveyed 551 women in fire departments across the country and found 29 percent reported "requests or demands for sexual favors from co-workers or supervisors."

Although Davis did not report any sexual harassment, she said her years as a firefighter had not been incident free. She said she found herself having to work harder than her male counterparts or being relegated to more menial tasks, such as fire hydrant duty instead of running into a burning building.

"I always volunteered for anything, I was always the first to say, 'OK, I'll be the one,' " Davis said.

But when Davis became a firefighter in 1992 at the age of 33, she had already experienced many personal challenges.

When Davis was 21 years old, 5 months after her son was born, her husband, Sid Tarbett, was murdered. He was shot in a parking lot in Las Vegas in an apparent random shooting.

"They would probably call it a drive-by shooting or road rage," she said.

The murder, which took place in 1980, was never solved.

"I had to grow up really quickly," she said.

For the next 12 years, she worked as a nurse in Las Vegas, and didn't even think of trying a career as a firefighter until some friends coaxed her into it.

"I've always been athletic and liked sports, and I was a little tall, which really comes in handy as a firefighter," Davis, who is 5-foot-8, said.

Davis rose through the ranks quickly, working as a firefighter for four years before getting promoted to an engineer, or fire truck driver. She made captain by 1999, a training officer in 2001 and later became an assistant chief for the North Las Vegas Fire Department.

Throughout this time, she also earned two associate's degrees from the Community College of Southern Nevada.

Davis earned two associate degrees in 1998, one for Fire Science Management and the other for Fire Science Technology. "I would study in the station during the down time," she said, adding that firefighters work 24-hour shifts, 10 shifts a month. During that time, she said she had enough free time to be with her son and continue her education.

As the acting chief, she said she is mostly in charge of administrative duties such as managing the day-to-day operations of the fire department. It's a position that she describes as "different" than rushing into burning buildings.

"Sometimes I miss that," she said. "They (firefighters) are always going out and having all the fun."