When Shannon Sparrow began her career with the Greenville Fire Department, she was 19 and had big boots to fill.
“They certainly didn’t have women’s size boots,” Sparrow joked. “When I started in ‘88, the helmet was too big, the coat was too big, the gloves were too big. Stuff didn’t fit exactly right.”
It was a man’s world, and at the time, firefighting gear wasn’t made for women.
“Back then, we didn’t have gear that fit us as well as our male counterparts. The turnout gear was a man’s cut, and now the individual turnout gear is tailor-made to each individual,” Sparrow said.
But Sparrow, who officially retired last month as the department’s first female battalion chief, said that despite being a firefighter-emergency medical technician in a male-dominated fidld, she overcame the challenge and made lasting friendships as her Greenville Fire-Rescue co-workers became a second family to her.