A fiesty female firefighter!

Fire control has had a long and interesting history in Fargo, beginning in 1877 when the first fire ordinance was passed. The city purchased a hook and ladder rig that year; a team of horses, “Major” and “Edwards,” were purchased ten years later.

In 1889, the fire department lost their first fire fighter in the line of duty: Joseph Hoefer. A few years later, the Great Fargo Fire of 1893 destroyed 160 acres and caused five million dollars in damage. By 1900, the Fargo Fire Department purchased its first chemical engine, but it wasn’t until nearly one hundred years later, in 2009, that the Fargo Fire Department hired its first, and only, female firefighter.

Dawn Stollenwerk grew up hearing about fires and emergency work from her parents, Kathy Carbno and Steve Carbno. “Steve is the director of the Salvation Army Disaster Services,” Stollenwerk said, “and both he and my mom are EMTs. When I finished college and was looking for a job, Fargo Fire was hiring. I thought I would like that. I was intrigued, but at that time I wasn’t prepared to apply.”

Instead, Stollenwerk applied for a job and was hired to work as a correctional officer at the Clay County Jail. “I did court transportation for five years. And during those years I started to get ready to apply for the fire department.”

The first time Stollenwerk applied, in about 2005, she didn’t pass the physical agility section: hose roll, hose drag, ladder raise, dummy drag, floor joist crawl, and moving a beam with a sledge hammer.

The second time she applied and was tested, she passed the written section, but her score was not high enough for her to move on.

By the time Stollenwerk was ready for a third testing, she was thirty years old. She thought to herself, “If I don’t pass, I’ll stop trying.” She passed the written section and moved on to the physical. “That day I wasn’t up to par and didn’t pass the ladder raise portion of the test, and I told myself, ‘I’m done.’”

Eight weeks later, Stollenwerk saw in the newspaper that the fire department was hiring again. Many people would have been daunted by three failures. But Stollenwerk wasn’t. Each time she didn’t pass, she focused on strengthening her weak area. The first time, her focus was on increasing her cardio work, the second time on studying for the written exam, the third time she worked on her grip and lat pull down exercises.

Stollenwerk felt that seeing that ad in the newspaper was a sign. “After I saw that ad,” she said, “I began going to the gym and working really hard.”

Stollenwerk tried one more time and passed both the written and the physical sections. An interview, drug test, background check, and polygraph test followed. Stollenwerk passed. After years of hard work and determination, she was offered a job at the Fargo Fire Department and became Fargo’s first female fire fighter in the fall of 2009.

Her first six weeks on the job consisted of in-house training. “We studied fire tactics, fire ground operations, hydrant use, trucks, and pumping. It was a lot of information in a short period of time.”

“Most days after the training, I could literally come home and ring out my clothes. I’d shower, eat, and study for the next day’s quiz and lecture.”

Learning to drive the fire truck began in the seventh week of training. It was the first time Stollenwerk had ever driven anything bigger than a pick-up truck. “The truck is our tool box,” she said. “It carries everything we might need to fight a fire, attend an accident, stabilize and cut apart a car, or do initial medical work. We keep 500 to 1,000 gallons of water on the trucks. At a fire scene, the water we carry is enough to get us started.”

Stollenwerk’s parents are very proud of their daughter. “I see my parents at fire scenes now. They work through the Salvation Army, waiting for the fire fighters to come out and giving them water and food. A fire scene can be a very hot environment. If a fire scene is long, or over dinner or breakfast, the Salvation Army brings the fire fighters food and water.”

“We do so many different things,” Stollenwerk said. “We’re dispatched to fires, fire alarms, accidents, and medicals, also anytime there is potential for injury, someone who is trapped, some property accident with fluids or gas leaking. We work closely with the area ambulances and the police.”

Fire fighters also conduct commercial inspections for fire code compliance, attend public relations events, and annually flush hydrants.

Fargo has seven fire stations, and the fire fighters rotate each year. A typical station has a work area, office, gear room, and big garage, as well as a kitchen, workout room, family room, bathroom, and sleeping quarters. Fire fighters work 24-hour shifts with three shifts rotating every nine days. A typical workday for Stollenwerk begins at 7:30 a.m. The fire fighters take calls, train, and have inspections until 4:30. Then they spend some time working out.

Dawn stollenwerk is not only fargo’s first female fire fighter, but up until now she remains the only female fire fighter who has ever been on staff.

“After the work out time we have individual time to study or relax. The station gets to be a home and a family. You get used to other fire fighter’s routines. It’s family friendly. I’m a single mom, so the weeks I have my girls, they stop in and see me in the evening hours.”

“I don’t feel unusual,” Stollenwerk said. “Grand Forks has two female fire fighters. It has never been uncomfortable. I feel like I fit in. Everyone is very friendly.”

Being a fire fighter is being part of a team. And that is something that Stollenwerk enjoys. “We are never alone at a fire scene,” she said. “Our captain is at the scene, and he is directing.” Stollenwerk has been on staff for more than a year, and so far she hasn’t been to any really serious medical calls. “I guess that is good and bad. For me to get experience, something bad has to happen. We want the experience, but it comes at somebody else’s loss or injury.”

“We do a lot of community relations such as visiting block parties and participating in parades. Community relations matter because it helps people feel comfortable around us. It creates a bond. And it helps people so they won’t hesitate to call us.”

“We want to make sure everyone is safe,” Stollenwerk said. “If someone has fallen and can’t get up, they are so apologetic. I want to let people know that this is why we are here. The fire department is a service organization. We are here for you. Please don’t hesitate to call. It’s worth your peace of mind. To sit and worry isn’t a good thing. We want people in the community comfortable with us so they will call us and so that things won’t escalate.”

Stollenwerk enjoys working with schools, also. “We help teach kids about fires. We want kids to know how we look and sound with all our gear on. Our voices sound funny with our masks on. We want to teach a child, in a fire situation, not to run away from us. Being in a fire can be very scary. So we talk about not running away or hiding.”

Several months after Stollenwerk had been to her first large fire, relatives of the homeowners came and thanked the fire fighters for saving so many of their personal effects. On a typical fire scene the fire fighters first do search and rescue, checking for people and extinguishing the fire. If the scene allows, they also salvage what they can. When fire fighters walk into a room they think, “If this were my house, what would I want to save?” If time allows, they put valuable items, pictures of family, computers, things that are hard to replace, into the middle of the room and throw a tarp over them. This helps protect from water damage.

Once a fire is out, the fire department does an overhaul. “We might open up walls, take our insulation, or tear down some structure. It’s important to make sure everything is out. Depending on the fire we may have someone stay on firewatch to watch for a possible rekindle.”

All of this work is done in specially fitted clothing. The gear weighs more than forty pounds. The suits are fire resistant and also have a moisture barrier. “You feel heat and you also heat up from your own body heat because the suit doesn’t breath. Each suit has a name across the back, and my helmet has a shield on the front with my number on it. The I.D. is important because once we get in our gear on we all look a lot alike!”

“Firefighting is harder than it looks. It’s labor intensive,” Stollenwerk continued. “But it’s also a very rewarding career.”

Stollenwerk said that part of the lure is the thrill of the actual fire fighting and the adrenalin rush that draws her. She enjoys the challenge of taking somebody’s bad situation and trying to make it a little bit better. “I like the thrill of being active, and I like to keep myself in shape,” she said. “You have to be able to do that. Being a fire fighter fits with how I like to live.”

Stollenwerk’s friends are not surprised with her choice of profession. “I’m not an office type personality. I watch college hockey and am a huge Sioux Fan. I try to go to the Frozen Four every year. I played basketball and volleyball and love being outside with my girls. Last fall I did my first half-marathon.”

The scope of what a fire fighter does is broader than Stollenwerk first expected. “The Fargo Fire Department deals with hazardous waste spills and has a technical rescue team. There are a lot of tools and equipment that require specific knowledge,” Stollenwerk said. “How a building is constructed may tell you how a fire will act. There is so much we all need to be aware of and know how to handle it. Being a firefighter isn’t just fighting fires.”

Stollenwerk loves living and working in Fargo. She likes that Fargo is big enough to have a lot of amenities and yet small enough to feel like home. She has seen the people of Fargo come together when they are needed, such as during recent floods. Stollenwerk said she couldn’t ask for a better profession or a better place to live, and she’d like to see more women in the department. “I think any woman coming into this department would like it.”

If Dawn Stollenwerk is any indication of the type of fire fighter on staff at the Fargo Fire Department, then they are truly a team, and a team to be proud of. [AWM] rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summer day listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is hardly a waste of time.

— John lubbock