Columbia Heights’ first female firefighter looks back

Part of the joy of working at the Anoka County Historical Society is having history at your fingertips as you J-O-B. One of the challenges is deciding how best to share this trove of information with the community.

We launched History 21: The Podcast in late December to engage people who prefer an audio delivery to a more visual format. As podcast lovers ourselves, staff often drive, wash dishes or take a walk with various programs chatting in their ears — and there is NOBODY else out there focusing on Anoka County History!

Episode six, located on AnokaCountyHistory.org in “History 21” or on the blog, features a portion of an interview recorded in 2008 with Denise DeMars, the first female firefighter with the Columbia Heights Fire Department. DeMars joined the department in 1978 after seeing an ad in the newspaper, only to become a full-time firefighter two years later. Her interview discusses how she navigated sexism in a male-dominated field as well as experiences fighting fires or investigating arson scenes as a fire marshal.

“Oh, you would have thought that the world was caving in,” DeMars said. “Everyone held their breath. … You could figuratively see and hear people just hold their breath when they knew a WOMAN had applied to the department. … What do we do now?”

During a time when women had no right to breastfeed their babies during the workday, open checking accounts or get a credit card, DeMars chose to break ground in Anoka County.

“My biggest supporter was my mom,” DeMars said. “She was absolutely thrilled. My second biggest supporter by just a hair, was my husband. … He stood behind me every inch of the way.”

As DeMars struggled to find uniforms to fit her small frame and navigate the politics of her choices, she also had to physically pass the training and tests of the department.

“I just did a great job, and after awhile they just had to snap their mouths shut and let me do it,” DeMars said.

During her time on the department, DeMars responded to many fires, though some had an added complication of jurisdiction between the Columbia Heights and Minneapolis departments.

“There were huge turf problems,” DeMars said. “People were very proud of being a firefighter in Minneapolis … and Columbia Heights was so proud of having a department … they didn’t need help from nobody, that was the attitude.”

The line existed by 37th Avenue, so anything 3701 and higher was a Columbia Heights call, and that line “could have been the Berlin Wall.” While mutual aid always existed between the cities, sometimes pride created circumstances in which (for instance) a car fire might have somehow rolled from one side to the other. DeMars said the relationship thawed significantly in time and doesn’t exist now.

In 1988 DeMars opted for a career shift and tested for a position in the state fire marshal’s office as a deputy. In this position, she responded to scenes in the metro area where there had been serious injuries or a fatality because of the fire.

“I would dig it out like an archeologist might and I reconstruct, very hands on, I figure out where the fire started, then I figure out why it started, or what started it at that particular point in the building. … If it’s arson … then figure out who did it,” DeMars said.

You’ll have to listen to the rest of the interview to hear how — if ever — people could get away with committing a crime by setting a building fire!

Rebecca Ebnet-Desens is the executive director of the Anoka County Historical Society.