LFD celebrates first all-female ambulance crew

Lexington, Ky. (WTVQ) — The Lexington Fire Department is celebrating a historic milestone, it’s first all female ambulance crew.

In a Facebook post, the fire department announced the news of the crew saying “Breaking barriers and blazing trails. Meet a couple of the women of our Lexington Fire Department, fearlessly leading the charge and redefining stereotypes.”

While the women on the crew acknowledge this milestone, they say it’s not any different than working on any other crew.

“I feel like we get asked a lot what it’s like to be a woman in this occupation and like she said earlier, it’s not really different for us,” said Michelle Spanyer. “We don’t see ourselves any differently. The term fireman comes free of bias, of gender, age, race or size and I think that’s a great thing. You can come in here and make excuses or you can come in here and just work better to be a better fireman everyday. I think that’s what everybody in this group strives to do, so I think it’s a pretty awesome opportunity.”

And while this may be an awesome opportunity, sometimes family and friends may not always agree.

“I know for me personally, it wasn’t super ideal,” said Olivia Speratos. “Just because when you hear those professions you’re like ‘that’s a dangerous job’. So of course no one wants you running to danger, they want you running from it. So, for me it was like they didn’t really want me doing it at first and now that they have a better understanding of it, they get it.”

When it comes to this job, being able to know what your team and patient needs is key. And when you’ve been working together as long as these women have that communication becomes second nature.

“Most of the time you don’t even have to communicate,” said Erin Lucas. “You go out on a call and your crew they know what you want or what you need, see the patient and what’s their best interest.”

Even though they agree that all crews are great, theirs is the best.

One of the best parts of this job for these women, is helping inspire the next generation of femal firefighter paramedics.

“The biggest thing for me, I think they would agree, is hopefully anyone that is younger than us or trying to figure out what they like, this just gives them hope and inspiration,” said Chelsie Brown. “Like oh they’re doing it, we can do it.”

If you’re interested in learning more about this job, you can find out more information here.