VIDEO - For Kim Bonney, becoming a firefighter was always the plan.
At age 16 she started working as a call firefighter in Ashburnham, though she'll point out that it wasn't until she was 18 that she was allowed to go into any burning buildings.
Originally, it had just been a way to fight off the boredom that inevitably comes with growing up in a small town, but it quickly developed into a passion for helping others.
"I've gotten to turn my hobby into my career and I love it," Bonney said, more than a month into her new career as a full-time member of the Leominster Fire Department.
Bonney's addition means Leominster has three female firefighters, a number that Fire Chief Robert Sideleau said is typical of a department its size.
"I'd say that we're within the average right now," he said. "I think 30 years ago they were more new to the service, but now there isn't anyone who gives it a second thought."
The number of female firefighters has steadily but slowly risen across the country over the last few decades.
When the National Fire Protection Association began keeping track in 1983, there were 1,700 women who worked in the fire service, accounting for 1 percent of firefighters nationwide. By 2012, the NFPA reported the number had grown to 10,000.
"Just looking at the recruit classes since 1995, we would start to see an average of one or two women per class.