As a rookie at the City of El Segundo Fire Department in 2003, Deena Lee said she would regularly pick up the heaviest guy and drag him around the fire station to prove that she deserved to be there.

Stereotypes have persisted throughout fire service that women are physically and emotionally unable to do the job.

According to Women in Fire, the stereotypes are deeply rooted in a profession dominated by white men despite the fact that there have been women firefighters for at least 200 years.

“When I first started, the biggest thing that guys wanted to know from a woman was could you carry them out of a burning building,” Lee said.

That firefighter she lugged around was at least 250 pounds, Lee added.

Now, nearly 20 years later, Lee was just sworn in as the City of El Segundo’s Fire Chief on Dec. 7, the only female fire chief in South Bay history and the only woman currently serving in that position in Ventura, Los Angeles and Orange Counties.

Lee has also been one of the few women teaching fire science as an instructor at El Camino College’s (ECC) Fire Academy since 2004.

“I feel honored and humbled,” Lee said. “I’m proud to serve the City of El Segundo as the Fire Chief.”

Lee will command three fire stations serving a beach city of over 16,000 residents and hundreds of thousands of tourists each year.

Lee explained that at the City of El Segundo Fire Department (ESFD), similar to urban departments across the country, 70% of the calls are medical emergencies and only 3% are for fires, with a combination of other incidents making up the rest, including downed power lines, traffic accidents and hazardous waste.

“It’s very rewarding to be that person that restores the environment from chaos back to normal,” Lee added.

When Lee was a little girl, she never dreamed of being a firefighter. She can’t remember ever seeing a woman in the fire service as she was growing up.

By 1999, Lee was a single mom raising two young children, studying to be a nurse at Long Beach City College, and working as an emergency medical technician at Long Beach Memorial Hospital.

The firefighter paramedics at the hospital would bring patients into the emergency room, and they noticed that Lee was strong enough to move patients around and that she was quick to provide CPR and other medical interventions. They recommended that she try a ride-along with the Long Beach Fire Department.

“I did one ride-along,” Lee said, “and I was hooked.”

After that, Lee went on a ride-along with almost every station in Long Beach and switched her major from nursing to fire science.

Lee graduated from Long Beach City College with an associate’s degree in fire science and then earned a bachelor’s degree in fire science from Columbia Southern University.

In addition to school, Lee worked as a volunteer firefighter at La Habra Heights. It took her about three years until she was hired by ESFD.

“It would never have occurred to me that I could be a firefighter until the paramedics in the emergency room made that recommendation,” Lee said.

Understanding the impact that this encouragement had on her own life, Lee prioritized teaching.

In addition to her work as a professional instructor at the ECC Fire Academy, Lee is initiating a girls’ fire camp for 13 to 18-year-olds that will be open to El Segundo residents but will also reach out to neighboring cities to recruit Black and Latinx youth.

“I believe that the fire department should represent everyone in the community,” Lee said.

At ECC, Lee has taught wildland firefighting, flammable liquids, hose and ladder training, in addition to securing donations for the program including a fire truck and extra equipment from ESFD.

“Lee is one of those people you can tell loves what she’s doing,” Chief Josh Boies, ECC Fire Academy program coordinator, said. “Whenever Chief Lee’s explaining things to the cadets, she’s always very vibrant, happy … and always smiling. That rubs off on people in an amazing way.”

Boies said that the ECC cadets are able to learn better because Lee is able to put others at ease.

“It opens their brains up a little bit more,” Boies added.

Having worked with Lee at ECC, Chief Jeff Baumunk, ECC’s public safety director had no doubts about Lee’s abilities.

“Unfortunately, women have always been seen as they couldn’t do the same job as a male in firefighting. But, I have worked with many women who have out-performed men,” Baumunk said.

Before starting as an instructor at ECC’s Fire Academy, Baumunk retired from a career with North Las Vegas Fire Department, worked at Jet Propulsion Laboratory and La Verne Fire Departments, and taught at Rio Hondo Community College Fire Academy.

In over 30 years in the fire service, Baumunk has never served with a woman chief.

“The fire service needs women because we are capable of doing the job,” Megan Kane, the only female student currently at ECC’s Fire Academy, said.

Kane said it’s essential that girls and women see women firefighters like Lee. Although Kane’s father is a captain with the L.A. County Fire Department, she wouldn’t have thought about going into the fire service if she hadn’t attended the women’s fire academy in San Diego.

“It’s such a concrete image that this is a man’s job,” Christine Coulson, a firefighter with the Culver City Fire Department and instructor at ECC’s Fire Academy said.

Coulson was also the only woman in her class when she graduated from ECC’s Fire Academy. Now, she is working to recruit more women into the fire service, including starting Culver City’s first fire camp for girls, ages 14 to 18.

Like Lee and Kane, Coulson never saw a female firefighter growing up or thought about the fire service as a career.

“As a kid, it never even crossed my mind,” Coulson said.

Women have worked hard to break the long-held belief that women can’t do this job, so having a female chief like Lee will do a lot to inspire other women to move into leadership positions, Coulson said.

Coulson found that having women in leadership is also important because they bring compassion to the job, and are often strong in verbal de-escalation, skills that are essential for most of the calls that firefighters respond to.

“For example, women are changing the tactics and services we offer to people living on the street. Many people just need some extra help getting a social worker, getting back on their feet, or getting a place to go,” Coulson said.

Women firefighters have advocated that departments extend the extra patience and understanding needed to help people that are too often dismissed, misunderstood or mistreated.

“[Lee] will also bring a lot of experience and integrity to the position,” Melissa Hillis, fire engineer at Beverly Hills Fire Department (BHFD), said.

Hillis has worked at BHFD since 2008 and began her fire service career in 1998 in Oxnard. Currently, as a fire engineer, Hillis is responsible for operating the pump and driving the fire engine to calls.

“The community of El Segundo is really lucky to have Deena Lee as their new chief,” Hillis said. “Chief Lee has always had a great way of communicating with people, not only the citizens of the community but with her employees.”

Over the past three years, Hillis and Lee have worked with other female firefighters to establish the Women’s Fire Alliance in order to support women to succeed in all aspects of the fire service.

Walking through Fire Station 1 in El Segundo, Lee points out that there are separate bathrooms and sleeping quarters for women. Throughout the nation, this is rare.

According to research on women firefighters and workplace harassment, 21.7% reported having experienced sexual harassment and 20.3% reported having been threatened or harassed because of their gender while on the job. Women firefighters have experienced more mistreatment and assaults in departments that don’t accommodate their rights to safe working conditions.

To enable women to enter the fire service and move up in the profession, Hillis said it depends on establishing a department culture of equality that is set by leadership at the top, including having discipline in place to ensure that department policies are followed.

“That’s one of the reasons that El Segundo is so lucky to have Chief Lee, because she will foster an amazing, equal environment for everyone to prosper – men, women, people of different races, everyone,” Hillis said.

For girls and women, the message Lee hopes to send is clear.

“I live by the philosophy that you have to see it for you to believe that you can be it,” said Lee. “I hope that seeing a woman as a fire chief inspires young girls to look into a career in the fire service, and I hope that I inspire other women firefighters to take promotional exams and move up in leadership.”

Editor’s Note Dec. 14, 2021,  12:55 a.m.: Story updated to change photo sizes and placement for readability.
Editor’s Note Dec. 15, 2021,  9:55 p.m: Story updated to correct a name.