Plainfield Fire Territory makes history with first all-female crew

PLAINFIELD, Ind. (WISH) — The women of the Plainfield Fire Territory made history on Sunday when five of them staffed Station 123, making it the first time only women staffed an entire station

Plainfield Fire Territory Captain Kathy Pennington clarified that each woman is fully qualified for their fire engine or ambulance role.

‘We didn’t just put somebody in to drive today. Carole, that’s her daily position, she does that every day. My medic crew, the same thing, that’s their daily position every day. My position, it’s the same thing, it’s what we do each and every day so we are already qualified to do that,” Pennington said. “It’s just important to me because as women we have done the things we need to do to get to where we are.”

Carole Klinger, a Plainfield Fire Territory Firefighter Paramedic, said, “Every day when I come in, I drive a fire engine, and I love doing it. I love the sirens. I love the trucks. I try to take care of the trucks as best as I can.”

This is the first time this group has ever been together; the women are normally spread out through the other fire stations. However, they all came together to celebrate Klinger’s upcoming retirement after 27 years of service.

“It’s something I never thought I’d see here in my time at least that we’d have as many women here as we do,” Klinger said.

These women are paving the way for more women to break into this male-dominated field.

“You might not think that you can but that’s where the problem is. You can do it,” Pennington said. “You’re going to have to put some work in to do it, you’re going to have to put some training in to do it but if you are willing and you want you can absolutely have what you want.”

“There’s a lot of people that come up and say oh you work for the fire department and say how do you like the ambulance? And I say I am not on the ambulance, I’m driving the firetruck,” Klinger said. “And they usually take a back a little bit and they don’t understand that that’s actually happening.”

This will be the last time an all-women crew like this gets together after Klinger retires until more women rise in the ranks to take her spot as the engine driver.

The women of the Plainfield fire department hope this becomes more of a standard in the future.