Equal protection

~ When it comes to equality for female firefighters, Cape Girardeau was perhaps ahead of its time.

Shortly after Vicki Moldenhauer joined the Cape Girardeau fire department, she realized something wasn't working. It had nothing to do with her treatment as the only woman on staff -- she said that was always fine. This was an equipment problem.

It seemed her mask had been designed for a man.

"I guess I just have a smaller-built face than the guys have," said Moldenhauer. "We were doing some training, and I got a call to go into a fire, and I kept playing with it and playing with it trying to get it tighter and tighter, but I guess I have a high cheekbone and a concave cheek because I kept losing air."

Modenhauer's mask was not forming a tight seal on her face. Consequently her equipment was using positive pressure to blow deadly carbon monoxide out of the mask.

In the world of female firefighters this is not uncommon. Fire tends to be a man's world, and the equipment is designed for men. But in a move that may have been ahead of its time, the cash-strapped Cape Girardeau Fire Department did not tell Moldenhauer to make do with the ill-fitting gear.

"They were in a budget crunch, so basically when you would hire new people they couldn't afford to get them properly fitting turnout gear. So if a guy retired the guy or girl we hired would have to wear his turnout gear: boots, pants, gloves and Nomex hood," she said. "But when they realized it was a safety issue, that I was losing air, they ordered me a smaller mask right away."

That may seem natural enough, but female firefighters around the country have recently been fighting for exactly this right in the court system.

In March, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis ruled "adequately fitting firefighting clothing and sanitary and private facilities are essential to the job of a firefighter, and inadequacies in these areas compromise job efficiency as well as safety."

The ruling means stations without adequate facilities and equipment for both genders risk being ordered to upgrade by a court ruling.

Big award

Anne Wedow, formerly of the Kansas City Fire Department, was awarded $285,000 after reporting multiple injuries due to ill-fitting protective gear. New York City officials recently an-nounced they will spend $8 million to upgrade the bathroom facilities in fire departments to accommodate females.

Moldenhauer, hired in 1995 and promoted to the rank of captain last year, said anyone breaking barriers must be willing to meet others halfway. "You've got to be willing to compromise," she said. "If you want to be the only woman and run through here with a women's rights flag and say 'you owe me this and you owe me that,' then you're not going to make it very far. But at the same time you've got to make sure they open the door a little bit."

Part of opening the door in the fire department has meant slightly modifying the facilities at fire station No. 1 on Sprigg Street.

Moldenhauer has her own bathroom and shower where she changes clothes before and after going out on a call. She also has a divider around her sleeping quarters for further privacy.

She said she tries to respect the privacy of the men by entering and leaving the sleeping quarters through a separate entrance. She said a new trend of privacy cuts across gender lines.

"The fire department is paramilitary, with the rank and the 'yes sir' and the captain and chief titles, so when they built the facilities back in the seventies the bunkhouse is like what you imagine in a military barracks. The showers are gang showers, because everyone used to take showers together," she said.

"Nobody does that anymore. At night if we get a call and we come back and take showers, they go in one by one. It's like, 'hurry up I want to go in there.' Even though it is a gang shower, they like their privacy, too."

This trend will be in evidence when the city's newest station, Fire Station No. 3, opens its doors in early 2007. The station at 1975 N. Sprigg St. will have unisex bathrooms, private showers and divided bunk areas.

Chief Rick Ennis said if possible he'd like to see more women in the department. He just needs to find more applicants like Moldenhauer.

'Another firefighter to us'

"She has done so well that she doesn't even represent a gender issue. She's just another firefighter to us," he said.

Heather Brewster of Marble Hill, Mo., took a physical agility test at the Cape Girardeau fire station last year. Brewster was one of four women who took the test that day. None of them passed. (Diane L. Wilson)

But the department has limited hiring options. Any person hired, male or female, must pass a rigorous physical examination. "Either you make it or you don't," said Ennis.

The test requires applicants to hammer a metal weight five to seven feet, take a 12-foot extension ladder off of a truck, put it on the ground and then set it back up, drag 200 feet of 2.5-inch dry hose line, raise two bundles of 3-inch hose 15 feet in the air, carry a package of prepacked hose up three flights of stairs to the rooftop and back down again, and finally drag a 160-pound mannequin a distance of 120 feet.

All must be completed in under seven minutes or the applicant fails.

Last year, four women tried the examination. All of them failed.

Moldenhauer said she likes the test to be unforgiving be-cause she'd want a competent firefighter if she ever needed help. "You can't bend the rules too much, because what good is it when they get inside a burning structure and they can't get a victim out?" she said. "I don't want to be catered to, and I don't want to be discriminated against."

tgreaney@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 245