VIDEO: The Tulsa Fire Museum is celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month by honoring the Tulsa Fire Department’s first Hispanic female firefighter. “I feel like I’ve got a lot riding on me just because I’m carrying my culture and heritage, representing all the Hispanics in the local area,” said Miriam Bryant, a firefighter on TFD’s hazmat team. “I’m honored to be recognized for that reason, but I’m also kind of like, hope I don’t let anybody down.” Bryant described her journey to becoming a firefighter.
“I was already an EMT and so I liked the medical field aspect of it and helping people. I was working an EMSA shift and one of the guys, Chuck, he was trying out for the fire department. We were working the City Picnic and he kept having all the guys come and talk to me and say, ‘you should do it! You should do it!’ I was like there’s no way my husband is going to let me go every third day, but finally, just to shut him up, I called my husband. He goes, ‘I think you should do it, sweetie’โฆThen I started trying.” While Bryant worked to gain a position with the Tulsa Fire Department, she volunteered with another fire department to make sure it was something she truly wanted to do.
“Tulsa had a hiring freeze, so it took me five years to get on but persistence paid off. That’s why I went and started volunteering to make sure, am I wasting my time or is this something I really want to do? When I got my first fire, it was like yeah! This is what I want to do.” Bryant has been a firefighter for 23 years and she said some of her favorite aspects of the job are the camaraderie in the department and the everchanging nature of each day.
