Three firefighters from Washington Township receive awards at Ministers of Harlem ceremony.
By: Mark Moffa
WASHINGTON Three firefighters from the Fire Department recently were honored for their service and for blazing new career opportunities for women.
Lori Bainbridge, Mel Correa and Pam Koharchik were awarded engraved medals and silk roses at a Ministers of Harlem ceremony in New York last month.
Ms. Koharchik said the organization wanted to do something to recognize female police, fire and rescue workers in the light of Sept. 11. Two female police officers from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and one emergency medical service worker were killed in the World Trade Center attack that day.
The Ministers of Harlem contacted Washington Chief Al Walker. The group was looking for a few female firefighters from New Jersey to join those in New York for the ceremony.
Washington’s three female firefighters were honored to attend. They said firefighting is not an easy career path for women.
"It’s a hard field to get into," said Ms. Bainbridge, a 14-year veteran of the department. "It’s still not socially acceptable. This is 2002, but it’s still a good ol’ boys club, in a lot of cases."
Ms. Bainbridge said out of the more than 100 female firefighters in the state, less than a dozen are "career" firefighters, or paid workers. Ms. Bainbridge, Ms. Correa, and Ms. Koharchik are volunteers.
Ms. Bainbridge, 42, is a program coordinator at the Center for Government Services at Rutgers University. She started working as a fire dispatcher for the township in 1988, at the age of 29. She became a firefighter in 1990. She is president of the department’s executive board and teaches a state training program for firefighters.
"It’s an interesting field with a lot of really good people," she said. "It’s more than just going out and putting out fires. That’s the least of it."
Operating the department just as a business would operate and participating in community service activities are a large part of being a firefighter, she said.
Ms. Koharchik said she was drawn into volunteering when Capt. David C. Horsnall spoke a few years ago at an Andover Glen board of trustees meeting. At the time, Ms. Koharchik served on the board.
The captain mentioned after a presentation to the group that the department was in need of volunteers. Ms. Koharchik said she wanted to help. She said she thought the captain doubted her ability.
"I’m positive he never thought I would show up the next day," she said. But she showed up, graduated from the fire academy, and has been volunteering for three years. She continues to serve Washington in her free time even though she recently moved to Hamilton.
"It’s a very visible way of helping people in the community," said Ms. Koharchik, who is vice president of the department.
Ms. Koharchik, 33, who teaches at Allentown High School, recalls being fascinated by fire trucks as a child. "But I never really considered it a career path," she said.
Ms. Correa, 20, was in the first firefighter vocational class run by Mercer County. She graduated top in her class and won several scholarships. Ms. Correa, who is Chief Walker’s stepdaughter, joined the department as a junior member in 1998, and became an active firefighter in 2000.
Currently employed as a dispatcher at Mercer County Central Communications, Ms. Correa said she felt a need to prove herself as a firefighter because of her sex.
"You do have to gain respect," she said.
All three said they were surprised and grateful to be honored at the New York ceremony, but they were humble as well.
"There are many people out there that do far greater things than I have done or will do," Ms. Koharchik said.
"I didn’t do anything to get a gold medal," Ms. Bainbridge said. She said there were two female firefighters in Washington before her, and that they must have paved the way locally. She said there was not a great deal of resistance to her presence in the firehouse.
"I did not have near the horror stories that I hear statewide," she said.