SAN ANTONIO – Hannah Detmers grew up around the firefighting world.
“My dad was actually a firefighter in Austin for 27 years, and it’s sort of funny because it never occurred to me that I could do that job,” Detmers said.
She said part of it was because she was a girl, and the thought just never crossed her mind. As an adult, a desk job wasn’t cutting it, and she finally realized what she wanted.
“I’ve heard the story from other women that I work with too. It’s just not so clear,” Detmers said. ”They’ve done other things before they wound up here. Either they were discouraged or told it was a man’s job or something like that.”
Detmers said she worked hard and became a San Antonio firefighter nine years ago, but realized there were not enough other women surrounding her.
Ten years ago, female firefighters made up about 4.5% of the uniformed workforce in the San Antonio Fire Department. That number now sits at 6%, while the national average still hovers between 4% and 5%.
Detmers worked hard and became a San Antonio firefighter nine years ago, but wanted to see more women surrounding her.
Recruitment discussions at the department got her thinking; the career option needed to be shown to girls as young as elementary school.
“I think the best way to do that was through creativity and art and discussion and that winds up in a book,” Detmers said.
Over the last several years, she wrote and illustrated the fictional book called “Flora’s Dream, Flicker to Flame.”
“A little girl, she’s in third grade, and she’s going to career day. One of the professions is firefighting, and it’s a woman firefighter,” Detmers said.
While she didn’t want to spoil the ending, she did say the little girl ends up inspired.
Detmers is starting to see that inspiration in real life.
She just started presenting at camps this summer, reading her book and leading safety activities, even letting children try on firefighting gear.
“There’s a safety checklist in the back of the book. They can go through their own checklist, memorize their address, pick a meeting point, and draw their plan, talk about it with their family, put it on their fridge,” Detmers said.
She said the book is also meaningful because SAFD currently has its first female fire chief, Valerie Frausto.
“She spoke a whole ago, and one of the things she talked about was, as you rise through the ranks, as a woman especially, it’s important to turn around on that ladder and pull up who’s behind you,” Detmers said. ”So I think that I would like to emulate that going forward in my own life.”
Detmers is also mentoring young women going through firefighter camps and training.
“I have a very good friend now, and she said that she remembered I had Taylor Swift playing in the truck,” Detmers said, laughing.
It’s proof that girls don’t have to fit into a specific box. They can be exactly who they are, and still end up in careers such as firefighting.
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