Tempe’s first female firefighter retires after 26 years

Gretchen Chalmers wanted to be a firefighter so much, she barely noticed that, when she was hired by Tempe in 1993, she was the Fire Department’s first woman on the front lines.

All the pomp and circumstance “didn’t matter to me,” she said. “I feel like I fit in and everybody got used to me being one of the guys even though I was a girl.”

Fitting in didn’t mean being anyone other than who she was.

She was 30 when she started. Getting the job took a grueling 31⁄2 years. Female firefighters are held to the same standards as male firefighters.

She tested with 3,000 applicants and was among 1,000 chosen to take the physical test. Based on their scores, applicants were called for two interviews, a background check, and 16 weeks of training at the fire academy.

An athlete all her life, Gretchen said, “I wanted to be part of a team and make a difference.”

After a month on the job, her battalion chief said it was business was usual.

That’s what Gretchen wanted. It didn’t matter that she was a woman. She did the job well.

Gretchen worked at Tempe’s busiest stations. In 1999, she was promoted to fire engineer and the next year she was certified as a paramedic.

“I still pinch myself every day because I got paid to do something I loved to do,” she said.

Gretchen retired Tuesday after 26 years. Today, nine of 162 Tempe firefighters are women.

“It’s not an old ladies’ job, so it’s time to go,” said Gretchen, who’s 56. (The younger firefighters call her “Mama Gretch.”)

She and her husband, Amos, a Phoenix firefighter, raised two children, Aidan, 14, and Bailey, 20.

“I’m here because there are little girls out there with hopes and dreams of doing this someday,” Gretchen said. “If they put their minds to it, they can do anything they want.”