Kevin Weiss

Stephanie Sorenson always had a desire to become a firefighter.

But, she was initially hesitant to join the force.

Being a female, the Wesley Chapel resident was unsure how she would be accepted within the Pasco County Fire Rescue fraternity. She, too, was unaware of how to become a volunteer firefighter— until she attended a fire safety event at The Shops at Wiregrass more than four years ago.

“Ever since then,” Sorenson said, “I’ve always enjoyed doing it, and haven’t stopped.”

The 40-year-old woman is assigned to Volunteer Fire Station 28, at 21709 Hale Road in Land O’ Lakes.

Typically, she undergoes Wednesday night fire training sessions, and often picks up weekend shifts, as her schedule permits.

Volunteering, she said, gives her the sense of what its like to be a career firefighter.

“My favorite thing to do is do a 24-hour shift at the career (fire) stations,” she explained. “I like going into the career stations because I feel like I can be of more help, especially the busy stations that get medical calls all the time. I like to be able to go to a busy station, and ride on the ambulance and help out in that way.”

Also a full-time ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) teacher at Clark Elementary in New Tampa, Sorenson balances her volunteer firefighter schedule with her primary responsibilities as a teacher and a mother.

Sorenson recently competed in “Step Up and Stand Out,” a national campaign sponsored by Kidde —  a leading manufacturer of residential fire safety product— to increase awareness of the ongoing need for volunteer firefighters.  The national contest was launched on Feb. 11 to recognize volunteers who have “gone above and beyond in their community.”

She is one of five finalists selected from video nominations for volunteers “who represent the best of the fire service.”

The winner of the contest — which continues through Sept. 23 — will receive a $1,000 training grant for their fire department, plus additional prizes – including a free trip for two to Nashville, Tennessee.

Pasco County Volunteer Services Chief Walter Lewellen nominated Sorenson for the nationwide campaign after observing her dedication as a volunteer.

“She has strong interest in the fire service,” Lewellen said about Sorenson. “She has a positive attitude, and she’s very creative in coming up with things that we can do to provide a valuable service to the community.

“When something’s going on, she’s always one of the first persons to try to be involved.”

Lewellen, too, was moved by two life-altering events in Sorenson’s life.

The first was a major house fire caused by an electrical shortage when Sorenson was a middle-schooler in Pinellas County.

“The toaster was plugged in, and it just shorted out and it caught on fire,” Sorenson said about her family’s Seminole home.

Luckily, she said, her family was at church at the time: “No one was hurt.”

But, smoke damage destroyed all of her family’s belongings.

“With the house fire, it just made me very concerned about leaving things plugged in,” she explained.

“We always made sure before we left the house that everything was unplugged, and sometimes my family — because of the anxiety of losing all your belongings and not having a home to live in — we double check things and sometimes triple check.”

The other tragic event occurred later in life —on Sorenson’s high school prom night — when her stepfather was in a horrific car accident.

While driving to the dance, she witnessed firefighters pull him from the wreckage, saving his life through the use of hydraulic rescue tools.

“They had to use the ‘Jaws of Life’ to remove the (car) roof,” said Sorenson.

The two tragic events caused Sorenson to have “an anxiety to the siren,” until she began her volunteer training — overcoming her fear.

“Training gave me confidence,” she said. “It didn’t matter if I was a female or not, I could do it, too, just like the guys.”

She added: “I love being a firefighter — not only the 24-hour shifts— but I love the continual training that we do, learning and working as a team to help other people.”

Chief Lewellen, who spent 29 years working with Tampa Fire Rescue, said volunteer firefighters provide an invaluable service.

“The volunteer stations tend to be in areas that don’t have as much coverage as other areas so, when they’re in service, it provides a first response unit and a couple of extra hands,” Lewellen said.

That includes cases like last month’s electrical fire at Bayonet Point Medical Center in Hudson, where 209 patients needed to be evacuated.

“I had approximately 30 volunteers over there, and that made a tremendous difference,” said Lewellen. “They helped people get loaded up and transported out of there, and they also set up a rehab area.”

Out of Pasco’s 590 fire rescue personnel, about 120 are volunteers.

The volunteers come from all different backgrounds and walks of life, Lewellen said.

“I have 18-year-old kids with nothing really going on yet, 70-year-old retirees and everything in between, so the volunteers that we have is a broad spectrum and very diverse,” he explained. “We do have an increasing number of female volunteers.”

According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), about 87 percent of America’s 30,000 fire departments are either fully or partially staffed by volunteers.

But, the number of volunteer firefighters has steadily deceased over the past 30 years.

An NFPA report published earlier this year shows the number of volunteer firefighters per 1,000 people has been decreasing since 1986. The report — which collects its data through surveys of fire departments — analyzed the number of career or full-time paid firefighters and the number of volunteers from 1986 through 2014.

There were 788,250 volunteers in 2014 compared to 808,200 in 1986, the report shows.

If you would like to vote for Sorenson, visit Firehouse.com/VF. Votes will be accepted through Sept. 23.

Published September 21, 2016