After 40 years as firefighter, flame to help others still burns bright for Lynn Kirkner
The raging house fire that left three family members dead was out. Lynn Kirkner promised herself she was too.
Seventeen years as a firefighter for the Hartsville Fire Co. was enough.
Seventeen years at the doorstep of tragedies, of climbing into burning buildings into flames upwards of 1,500 degrees to see things she’d rather forget, of stepping willingly into the maw of danger, of being burned and falling through crumbling floors, and of watching fellow firefighters with families and dreams risk their lives. She would take her bachelor’s degree in child care from Temple University and help her neighbors in other ways.
After 17 years, she had become stressed from watching folks from her community, where she climbed trees as a tomboy and played in the dirt, lose their homes, cherished possessions, and, in unfathomable instances, loved ones. This latest conflagration had brought her to this salient moment.
Sweaty, soot-coated, and physically and emotionally spent, Kirkner sat alone in a fire engine outside the split-level home on Darrah Road in Warminster and wept, effectively stamping a period on her volunteer firefighting career. Her sense of duty to her community had flickered to flame as a teenager. It was now extinguished, punctuated by a drawn-out exhale of relief.
“I decided I was done,” said Kirkner, 57, the other day while seated in the back room of the Hartsville Fire Co. “I remember that call vividly. It was November (15th) 1999. An 8-year-old boy, his 42-year-old dad, and 68-year-old grandmother died in the fire. The fire was out. People died. I sat in the fire engine outside the house and quit. I thought about that little boy. I was done.”
She was certain she was done.
Her devotion to her community reminded her otherwise.
Firefighters are part of solution
Twenty-three years later, Kirkner sat at a long table in the Hartsville firehouse and shared her feelings about having rediscovered the burning passion to serve soon after nearly walking away that tragic night 10 days before Thanksgiving. Reasons central to why she decided to continue serving instead of stepping away.
“I remember after that fire a counselor came in to talk with us,” she recalled, as a placard that read ‘Real Heroes Don’t Need Capes’ perched on the ledge of a whiteboard peered over her right shoulder. “They let us all talk it over, what we did, what we saw. Talking it all out helped. In the end, you just gather yourself, learn from what happened how you might be able to prevent something bad from happening with the next one and go on. There’s always something to be learned from a fire death.
“So, why did I decide to keep going? At 2:30 in the morning when someone is having their worst moment, I get to be part of the solution. I’m the lucky one. Other than meeting my husband here and being blessed with our children, being here is the greatest blessing of the past 40 years.”
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Why so few female firefighters?
On Aug. 3, Kirkner will observe 40 years at Hartsville. So many years, so many hats, so many highs and lows, and so few like her across America.
According to the National Fire Protection Association, since the 1980s, when she joined the firefighting fraternity, the number of female firefighters has increased slower than a crawl, from 1 percent to 6 percent, numbering 69,600 from among 1.16 million of the overall fire force.
The question lingers: Why haven’t more women followed in Kirkner’s bootsteps?
In addition to the physical demands of being a firefighter and concerns about gender bias from colleagues, women in the field face gender-specific cancers from exposure to carcinogens and other chemicals that, while not having yet been fully studied and understood, can impact fetal development. A 2018 study by the National Institutes of Health found that 27 percent of female firefighter pregnancies ended in miscarriage, and pre-term births were nearly 7 percentage points higher than the national average of 10 percent.
All firefighters are regularly exposed to chemicals, including carbon monoxide, that have been linked to miscarriage, birth defects, slowed fetal growth, and impeded brain development, according to the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics.
“I will honestly say a large part of why there aren’t more females is, we are the moms who stay at home with kids," Kirkner said. "It’s a little different when you are going to put your life on the line when you’re a mom. That’s a big ask.
"When I first got here, I’m sure there were probably bets on how long I’d last. But I’ve been fortunate the guys in this company are very gentlemanly and kind. I’ve seen others in other companies who are rougher around the edges. But by 2022, I felt there would be more females. In my career at Hartsville, there’ve only been four other women."
Female firefighters prove themselves
Ed Pfeiffer remembers the day 40 years ago. William Tennent senior Lynn Marcy, all 5-foot-2, 120 pounds of determination, walked confidently into the Hartsville Fire Co. and informed the fire chief she wanted to become a firefighter.
“From the very beginning, Lynn was tenacious, willing to learn from mistakes, and committed to doing what she needed to do to become a firefighter,” said Pfeiffer, 77, the current HFC president, who is in his 54th year with the fire company. “That’s just how she was and still is.
“At that time, it was rather unusual for a woman to be in fire services. Back then, I’m not sure the average woman felt she could do certain parts of the physical work required. But we’ve learned that those who give it a shot, those who are serious about it, can do it. It’s been proven.
“In Lynn’s case, she showed a lot interest early on. When you show interest, it changes attitudes among the other firefighters. They saw she wasn’t just going through the motions; she was committed. When others saw that, they didn’t mind showing her what to do beyond all the training she was going through. Lynn hasn’t just been here for 40 years; she’s become a role model.”
Michael Cox, a 29-year-old colleague, agrees.
“People who still think women can’t be firefighters are wrong,” said Cox, an HFC volunteer firefighter and career firefighter with Upper Moreland Fire Dept No. 10, who began his career as a cadet at the fire company and whose father, John, is a former HFC fire chief. “Lynn has proved that. She’s risen in the ranks — was a lieutenant and captain, at one point — which tells you something. She’s not only proven herself and met expectations, but she’s exceeded them.”
As Cox spoke, Kirkner sat across the room. At one point, she jokingly called out, ‘Mike, say good things about me!’ Cox laughed and said, “I don’t have to make up nice things to say about her; she’s a role model for a lot of us.”
Firefighting is a calling
Kirkner devotion tree has many sturdy branches.
There’s one for firefighting, although the physical demands over the years nudged her in 2012 off the ladders and to the title of engineer, responsible for driving, repairing, and maintaining various firefighting apparatuses. Another for her husband, their three grown daughters, eight foster daughters, and five grandchildren. And another to Jesus Christ.
She and Ken are active members of the Church of the Open Door, in Fort Washington, where he served as deacon. They are also members of Samaritan’s Purse. Co-founded by Franklin Graham, son of the late Christian evangelist Billy Graham, the humanitarian aid organization provides assistance to those in physical need as a key part of its missionary work. Kirkner made seven trips to Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and regularly made missionary trips to Haiti.
Be they floods or fires, to Kirkner, helping is a calling.
“I do these disaster relief trips because people need help,” she said. “We need to be Jesus’s hands and feet. I want to help.
“I grew up a half-mile from this fire company. There were always accidents on York Road. I could hear the sirens while I was in my house. I’d walk out and look. When I turned 17, I didn’t just want to look anymore. I wanted to help.”
Kirkner is currently a substitute teacher in the Centennial School District. She also taught preschool at their church’s Open Door Christian Academy. She also did a six-year stint as a paid firefighter in Northampton. Serving and teaching. Then and now. After 40 years. Despite the fires and the horrors and the tears.
Because the desire to help supersedes all.
Columnist Phil Gianficaro can be reached at 215-345-3078, pgianficaro@theintell.com, and @philgianficaro1 on Twitter.
This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Hartsville Fire Co.'s Lynn Kirkner celebrates 40th year as firefighter
