First responders never know what they’ll encounter when the call comes in – and so they practice. They participate in training drills on a regular basis. Firefighters, paramedics, troopers and police officers are all a big family– one that has each other’s backs in the face of any emergency.
Ralph Munroe works on Ladder 3 out of the Stevens Avenue station – and the notion of family hits pretty close to home for him. “I wasn’t really thinking about anybody following me into this line of work.”
One of his kids had a different idea and clearly got some of his firefighting DNA. It happens a lot… Sons following their dads into this profession. But when it’s your daughter? Well, that’s another story.
At the suggestion of her dad, Lida joined Junior Firefighters as a teenager and never looked back.
Father and daughter both work out of the Stevens Avenue station – two 24 hour shifts in an 8-day rotation. They are the first active father-daughter team in the history of the Portland Fire Department and routinely work the same shifts.