Your web browser is out of date. Update your browser for more security, speed and the best experience on this site. Feb 12, Connie joined the department in , becoming the first female firefighter in Jersey City. Having worked her way up in the ranks, she is now the first female fire battalion chief in the state of New Jersey. Her younger sister, Francesca, recently joined the company, after several years working as a police officer.
Lidia learns how these two female firefighters have both felt a calling to respond to emergencies during their entire adult lives. I was very little. I think probably around eight. We have stairs in our house, and she would throw me over her shoulders and run up and down the stairs practicing. I thought it was great. Then, I went to the police academy and did that for three years.
Connie was like, "Come on, you got to do fire! Then I spent one night in the house with these guys, and I knew that was it. In the firehouse, everything is done together down to the shopping. We clean together, we eat together, and it's really like having a second family. I signed my papers the very next day.
After a fire, circa , early in Connie Zappella's career as a fire fighter. Actually when I was told, "You're going to be our first female," I was more shocked that they didn't have females than that I was going to be their first female.
I was like, "What do you mean? You don't have females? How could that be? When I came on, the men that worked with me knew that this is what I love to do and this was my career and that I was going to be around for a long time.
