By FireRescue1 Staff
FERNDALE, Mich. — A fire department hired a female firefighter for the first time in its 80-year history.
Mona Markabani, 25, joined the Ferndale Fire Department in January. She formerly served with the Lincoln Park Fire Department and graduated from the fire academy in 2014, where she was one of two women in the class.
Despite the intense physical and academic training cadets must go through, Markabani said that is not an obstacle.
“Yeah, I have a different gender, but in the end, we are all working together to do the same job,” she told The Daily Tribune. “Either you are capable of doing it or not.”
Ferndale Fire Chief Kevin Sullivan said Markabani approached him during an informal meet and greet and was impressed.
“She cornered me when I was taking a group on a tour of the station, and she says, ‘if you had to hire a female, would there be any issues?’,” Chief Sullivan said. “I really liked that, I thought, she’s spunky, but she’s honest and straightforward with what she’s looking for.”
Markabani said she wanted to become a firefighter after a female firefighter spoke at her elementary school when she was 7.
“For me it’s not about being a female firefighter, it’s literally being able to help everybody, being part of a team, and having a second family,” she said.
Out of 1,134,400 career and volunteer firefighters in 2014, 82,550, or seven percent, were female firefighters, according to a report published by the NFPA.