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Woman who passed YFD agility test first since ‘04
By JOE GORMAN
jgorman@vindy.com
YOUNGSTOWN
After all the training and planning, Erin Gilmour says it was a shout from her mother that pushed her the most to become the first woman in 13 years to pass the city fire department’s physical agility test.
She was faltering as she was going through some of the firefighter tasks at Chaney High School when her mother’s voice pierced through the air and spurred her on to finish.
“When my mom yelled, it got me back to my game plan,” Gilmour said.
Gilmour, a cross-fit coach and former criminal justice major at Youngstown State University who graduated from Howland High School, is the second woman to pass the test since it was upgraded in 2000 to make it harder.
Only one other woman, Lt. Courtney Kelly, passed the current incarnation of the test, and that was in 2004. Kelly is one of five female firefighters in the department. The other four were hired before the new test was in effect.
The test was administered by the city civil service commission. Firefighters – and police officers – take a written entrance-level civil service exam, then take a test to see if they are physically in shape to do the job.
Police and firefighters take different physical-fitness tests.
Gilmour’s test consisted of two laps around the track at Chaney, along with climbing up and down ladders, dragging a 180-pound dummy 70 feet and carrying hoses that were empty and charged, and taking a turn on the Keiser Sled, a device that tests a candidate’s ability to wield an ax or a sledgehammer – all within seven minutes.
“It was very hard,” Gilmour said.
Gilmour credited her job with keeping her in shape, and she also devised a plan for getting through the test, visualizing herself doing each test. She said she concentrated on activities before the test that would tire her legs out, so she would be used to being tired when the test came.
“Once I knew what would be on the test, I did what I could to tire my legs out,” Gilmour said.
She said the hardest part of the test was when she had to hoist the charged hose up to the top of the ladder.
Gilmour said she wants to be a firefighter because she wants a job that’s physical. With her combined scores on the written and physical tests, she is third on the eligibility list to be hired. Her grandfather was a firefighter for Niles, she said.
Fire Chief John O’Neill said the department will be hiring this year if they can secure a grant they applied for to hire more firefighters. He said if the city gets the grant, they will be hiring four firefighters.
O’Neill said the tasks on the test are from the International Fire Chiefs Association and other firefighter groups and unions. He said the tests try to simulate work candidates would have to perform at a fire.