Just a month ahead of International Women’s Day (March 8, 2024), the City of Calipatria hit an interesting women’s milestone marker with the hiring of their new full-time employee.
Nydia Navarro, a single mother in her 40s and part-time/on call firefighter for the City of Calipatria for the past three years and resident of Calipatria, became the the City's first full-time female firefighter on February 7, 2024. The City of Calipatria announced the hire of Navarro ten days later on their official social media page.
Navarro is also the first female firefighter for Calipatria to be certified as a fire engineer, meaning she has been licensed to the drive fire engines, as of July 2023.
“Ms. Navarro is paving the way for wider opportunities for today's young women to join fire departments on an equal footing with men,” Calipatria Mayor Sylvia Chavez wrote in a statement to IVP.