BLAZING
A TRAIL MEET THE SIX WOMEN OF MONCURE FIRE B Y D O L LY R . S I C K L E S PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOHN MICHAEL SIMPSON
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f the future is female, then Moncure’s fire department is ahead of its time, with six women making up 16.2% of its total crew. That’s double the national average, according to the U.S. Fire Administration. “It doesn’t feel radical to me,” says Fire Chief Robert Shi. “I think our diversity makes us stronger and better able to relate to the diverse population we serve.” Robert says Moncure Fire Station 8 has a total force of 37 men and women, including volunteers, who cover nearly 86 square miles of rural, unincorporated community – which includes parts of New Hill – with an estimated population of 3,400 people. Meet a few of those women who help provide a lifesaving service:
CALL TO ACTION Gracie George is doing all she can as a fulltime firefighter in Apex and as a volunteer in Moncure. At 23, she’s the youngest of this group of female firefighters. She began considering it as a career around her junior year in high school. “Firefighting sounded fun to me, though it isn’t well-advertised to women coming out of high school as a career,” Gracie says. “The adrenaline, the unique
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schedule, the amazing team aspect of it all – it all sounded perfect for me. When I mentioned my idea to family and friends, many of them discouraged the idea because it was either too dangerous or I’d be working with a bunch of guys. So I listened to them and pursued nursing instead.” It didn’t take her long to discover that nursing wasn’t her calling, so she revisited firefighting and began volunteering. “Firefighting is far more than just putting out fire,” Gracie says. “You’ve got to be sharp on your skills in emergency medical care, vehicle extrication and public safety, to just name a few.” In Apex, Gracie is one of only three female firefighters. “The dynamics are very different between the two departments as each truck in Apex is very specialized for the tasks it’s meant to accomplish [since it’s a larger station]. In Moncure, the engine carries far more tools for things like extrication because of the lack of personnel, so the engine has to function in far more capacities than an engine would somewhere else,” she says. “As a firefighter, my role is to be ready to perform whatever task is assigned to me when we arrive on scene.”
FAMILY TIES Carla George, Gracie’s mom, spent the past
25 years as a self-professed stay-at-home, home-schooling momma of four (and
SUMMER 2022
The women of Moncure Fire: Anita HarrellFiks, Katie Bond, Madison Jordan, Laurie Preston, Carla George and Gracie George.