Seattle's first woman firefighter retires

Friends say Bonnie Beers isn't a crier. She's more of the iron-tough-athlete, call-it-as-she-sees-it type, and that's what helped her become the Seattle Fire Department's first woman firefighter.

She had for months been emotionally preparing for her Sunday retirement gala -- one that was three decades in the making -- at the Westin Seattle Hotel.

"I'm going to do best not to cry," she said, working on her speech she delivered in front of a couple of hundred friends.

It was hard for her not to, hearing friends and former bosses speak of how the department and the city is a better place because of her. The department chief praised Beers, and City Councilwoman Sally Clark presented a proclamation honoring her, which will be formally read to the full council Monday.

Her career, the challenges and the accomplishments, are seen from many perspectives -- including that of Beers.

		Grant M. Haller / P-I
	Bonnie Beers is inducted May 11, 1978, as the first woman Seattle firefighter. Her colleagues honored her 30-year career Sunday.

She treasures some people she worked with, and the firefighting friendships she knows will continue for decades -- and colleagues speak of her in the same light. Beers says she stuck with the job because she loved helping others in a challenging job, and she's proud of the life she made.

Yet, Beers said she thought she would have left the department in a different, a higher position, and believes some leadership improvements are still needed.

When she officially joined the department in spring 1978, people had different takes on her. One firefighter transferred so he wouldn't have to work with her. Some dispatchers mocked her voice; other co-workers watched porn and warned she better stay in shape.

Others were supportive, even though the stations -- and initially the uniforms -- were designed for one gender.

Jim Fosse, who worked with Beers in the early 1980s and became her supervisor as a deputy chief, said most men in the early days saw her as just another firefighter because she handled the job well and didn't draw attention to herself.

To some women who soon followed, Beers was a role model -- a strong-willed woman who had the character to put up with criticisms and consistently performed well in her job, opening doors for others as the first woman lieutenant. The discrimination is not at the station level like it was three decades ago, Beers says, and some co-workers say the other 92 women who are part of the department's 1,035-person force are a credit to her career.

Beers always had a special spot in the mind of Sue Rosenthal, one of eight women who joined in 1980. Rosenthal's group, supported by the four women already in the department, forged a strong bond through a year of training, and though they were later spread geographically, the support was still there.

		P-I
	Bonnie Beers, the first woman Seattle firefighter, first applied to join the department in 1975 and was inducted in 1978. This file photo was taken in 1977.

"Bonnie was doing it without the support of 12 other women," said Rosenthal, now a deputy chief and the department's highest-ranking woman. "A lot of amazing women have left before making it to 25 or even 20 years."

After being promoted, Beers would never give a subordinate a task she wouldn't do, and never complained about cooking or mopping around the station, Rosenthal said. Following Beers' 1996 promotion to battalion chief, she'd come by to visit Rosenthal, then captain at a South Seattle station, asking how things were going.

"There was the consistency of knowing she was there for you," Rosenthal said. "That's what endeared her to people she worked with."

Nearly a dozen of those people spoke out earlier this year, writing letters nominating Beers for the Lifetime Achievement Award she later received. Co-workers called her a mentor, a friend, someone who was calm and experienced at fire scenes.

"Naysayers couldn't bring her down because she truly belonged there," Deputy Chief Bill Hepburn said.

Hepburn worked with Beers during her first three years, when she was 24 and fresh out of the University of Washington. Beers had played basketball there and at Western Washington University, and thought of being a firefighter after her brother received a postcard announcing department tests.

It read "women and minorities are actively encouraged to apply," following a 1975 order by then Mayor Wes Uhlman and the City Council.

Beers left the first coed recruit class the next year, saying she didn't feel strong enough physically. But after three years of running and weight lifting, Beers was among the 23 recruits in the 1978 class.

Her first fire was a fatality. A woman went back inside to save her dog, and Beers found her under the charred Christmas tree.

"The expectation was that I would freak out," Beers said. "That didn't happen."

		Karen Ducey / P-I
	Bonnie Beers poses next to a fire truck at Station 17.

The way she did her job made it easier for those who followed her, Hepburn said. "She walked that line of not being pushed around, but not being pushy."

But sometimes Beers became the center of attention. Two days after her 1978 induction ceremony, Beers detailed the harassment she faced to a P-I reporter, using an expletive to describe a few of the men she worked with. In 2001, Beers and three other women firefighters told a KING/5 reporter they wanted the mayor to pass over two administrators in the search for a fire chief.

"Sadly, I do not see the department progressing as it should be," Beers said last week. "The department is filled with capable and knowledgeable firefighters and officers. As leaders, you must listen and change and value firefighters."

Some firefighters agree with Beers, who has made more pointed criticisms of specific administrators and believes she faced limitations in the past five years. Others, including some who note she turned down a deputy chief position, don't share her view.

Said Rosenthal: "Firefighters can be very opinionated. I think what's most important is her full 30 years, not any one part of it."

"A lot of people speak their minds and that's not a bad thing," Chief Gregory Dean said. "I hope all my chief officers believe they could do any task they're given. I love her confidence."

That confidence has always been there, said Beers' friends since elementary school, who watched with pride Sunday.

"Nobody told us we could do whatever we wanted when we grew up," longtime friend Monica Sylvester said. "But Bonnie did what she wanted."