Lynn Falconer named Paramedic of the Year for Moses Lake Fire Department

MOSES LAKE — Lynn Falconer said she originally volunteered as a firefighter to get some experience with a fire department. She thought it would help in her effort to get a job as a 911 dispatcher, but instead, it was the introduction to an entirely new career.

Falconer was hired by the Moses Lake Fire Department in 2019 and was named the MLFD Paramedic of the Year in December.

She first volunteered for the Ephrata Fire Department in 2012, she said, after failing to get that dispatching job.

“I wanted to do some volunteer work, wasn’t really sure where the fire service would lead me,” she said. “I ended up absolutely falling in love with (firefighting).”

The job not only allows her to help people out in challenging situations; it’s also different every shift.

“Once I started, it was so addicting. Caring for people – really getting to make a difference, having a fast-paced environment. Coming here, I never know what the day is going to bring. This job is just overall fulfilling. I felt like my cup was always full, working as a firefighter,” she said.

As a paramedic, Falconer’s training allows her to offer more advanced treatment techniques than an emergency medical technician. At MLFD, firefighters work 48-hour shifts, broken into two halves.

“We usually spend one day working on the fire engine and one day working on the medic unit,” she said. “But we cross over as needed. So sometimes when you’re on that (fire) engine, you still work as a paramedic on calls.”

She cited Friday morning as an example. She was assigned to the ambulance when a fire call came in, and the ambulance crew’s help was needed to fight the fire.

“We carry all of our gear, and we suited up and switched over to firefighting operations,” she said.

Falconer said her early experiences in Ephrata prompted her to get more training, starting as an EMT. She went to work for a private ambulance company in 2015 and obtained her paramedic certification. After four years there she applied with MLFD and was hired.

She’s one of two women on the Moses Lake team; Falconer and Samantha Wright were hired a couple of weeks apart, and were the first women in the department. They’re still the only women. In general, firefighting is still a male-dominated field, she said.

“There are about 1.2 million firefighters in the U.S.,” she said. “And out of that 1.2 million, they think about 8% are women. That’s it,” she said.

Part of the reason for that, in her opinion, is that women don’t realize they can do it. She is starting a program this summer to introduce girls to the firefighting profession. Camp Fireproof will be for girls about 16 to 19 years of age.

She got the idea from the group Women and Fire, a support group for female firefighters, she said. Other departments across the country have set up similar camps.

“My hopes for this summer camp is that we’re going to be able to show young ladies what it takes to be a firefighter, but also show them what it takes them to be strong, independent, resilient women,” she said.

Participants will learn about the fire service and its traditions, fire behavior, basic firefighting techniques, nutrition and physical fitness. Falconer said she wants the participants to push themselves and know they can succeed.

“These are going to be hard days out on the drill ground, but I really hope that they leave here both empowered and thinking, ‘You know what? I can do that. I’m going to do that when I get older,’” she said.

Department chief Brett Bastian was supportive of the idea, she said, and she is grateful for the support she received from MLFD officers and firefighters.

“They are so receptive to letting us explore and build, and they are our biggest cheerleaders here, letting us pursue these programs,” she said.

Falconer also has talked with administrators at the Columbia Basin Technical Skills Center, encouraging them to add a fire science program to the skills center curriculum.

But it’s also important to know if it’s not the right career, Falconer said, because it isn’t for everybody.

“It’s not going to be appropriate for everyone,” she said. “I think it takes a special personality to be a fireman, whether you’re a man or a woman.”

The job can be physically demanding, involving lifting and carrying heavy objects, and not all women have the physical ability to do it.

“The size of you does matter. The strength of you does matter,” Falconer said. “It’s a taxing job.”

It can be a mentally challenging job, too.

“We work 48-hour shifts and sometimes we barely sleep during those shifts,” she said.

Emergencies can and do happen when they happen, no matter what else is going on.

“An emergency doesn’t care if you’re on vacation; it doesn’t care if you’re eating; it doesn’t care if you’re sleeping; it doesn’t care what your plans were or what you were in the middle of,” she said. “You have to be willing to drop what you’re doing – and act.”

For Falconer, the benefits outweigh the challenges.

“But it is so rewarding. It’s not just the person who is saved by us, or that we’ve lessened suffering for them – they’re not the only people who are really impacted by this. This can be such a fulfilling career when you get to lessen suffering for others,” she said.

Most calls are not the kind of emergencies that require life-saving intervention, she said.

“But on a daily basis we can show compassion, and we can lessen suffering. Even if that’s holding a hand, reassuring somebody that everything is okay – just showing up sometimes is a relief to people,” she said.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com.