THE first woman to get a job as a firefighter on the North Shore 15 years ago has earned another title in the history books: the first woman to rise to an officer rank from the ground up in Metro Vancouver.
Lieutenant Carla Penman is now in charge of the three-person crew that runs the rescue and the tower trucks for District of North Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services, but at the fire hall, she doesn't feel like her story is any different than anyone else's.
"I didn't feel special. I started with the same group of guys 15 years ago, and we've all gone through the ranks together, and here we are all 15 years later promoted to officer," she said.
Penman chose the job thanks to a suggestion from a friend. Penman had just finished four years of college basketball and was looking for something that had the same team feeling, when a family friend who was also a firefighter suggested she try the career. The idea stuck.
"I love that every day is different. I definitely love the camaraderie. I mean, there are some people who I'm going to be working with for 25 years. They're the same people. They're good friends, and you trust them, and you've always got each other's back," she said.
Penman was hired as a probationary firefighter in 1998, and worked her way up, becoming a driver, then a driver of the ladder truck, a fireboat operator and so on.
The surprises are what she enjoys most, she said. In one routine call six years ago, Penman's crew arrived at a house to hear a woman cry out, "The baby is coming."
"I'd actually just had a baby myself, so out of the four of us on the fire truck, I probably knew the most about it," she said, laughing. "The ambulance ended up getting there, and we did it together, and I was definitely a huge part of bringing the baby into the world."
Today, Penman's not the only woman on the crew, but she said it's still a job that women shy away from. She thinks that's largely because young women aren't aware of the opportunities, or don't have role models to show them.
"I think it will change as there's more women on the truck," she said, wondering aloud what would have happened if she hadn't known a firefighter herself.
"I've thanked him many times."
