These firehouse changes could better accommodate women with Louisville Fire Department
비바카지노 Viva took a tour inside the Louisville Fire Department's Engine 23 in Iroquois on Thursday, which could soon be rebuilt to better accommodate female firefighters.
"Firehouse architects 70 years ago weren't planning in female accommodations because at the time, women just really weren't firefighters yet," said Capt. Tamara Stewart, who has been on the department for 12 years.
In 2025, Stewart knows firsthand that women in a firehouse need privacy.
"We need a place to sleep, we need a place to shower, and we need a place to change," she said.
According to Stewart, the separate, gender-neutral dorms and bathrooms inside the newly renovated Engine 17 in the California neighborhood set an example of what modern-day fire stations should look like. The city's last budget surplus made the upgrades possible for the more than 100-year-old building.
While the historic firehouse on Garland Avenue was able to be renovated with facilities geared toward women, Engine 23 in Iroquois is simply too old to consider a renovation.
"We don't necessarily want to have to tear them down. Engine 23, it's just so small. We might not have that option to renovate," Stewart said.
If Metro Council passes Mayor Craig Greenberg's 2025 budget proposal in June, the firehouse built in the 1950s would be demolished and $3 million would go toward building Louisville's first new fire station in 15 years.
Women are not able to work in the current building, as it still has an open, single-room dormitory and shared bathroom.
Stewart believes the proposed changes would benefit not just women but anyone in the department.
"Human beings, regardless of gender, do better when we have a private place to decompress," Stewart said.
She went on to say that having separate showers at a firehouse speeds up the process of rinsing off carcinogens all firefighters are exposed to while responding to a fire.
We'll find out in June whether Metro Council gives the mayor's $1.2 billion budget its stamp of approval, allowing the firehouse rebuild in Iroquois to move forward.