55.0°,
Mostly Cloudy History made in fire department
Karen Bendel takes over as first female chief
Volunteers at the Baldwin Fire Department have been keeping community members safe since 1895. Over the years, equipment and techniques have changed, but one thing has remained constant: the department’s leader has always been a man. That is, until now.
On Jan. 1, Baldwin native Karen Bendel officially became the department’s first female chief. She was elected to the position in December by the department’s roughly 240 members. Over the past three years, Bendel, 41, has served as third, second and, most recently, first deputy chief.
Once a member wins an election to become third deputy, Bendel explained, he — or she — is on track to become chief three years later, unless something unforeseen happens. Bendel became third deputy chief in December 2011. “That was a pretty big deal,” she recalled.
While she was growing up, she hung around the firehouse. Her father, Bill Werfelman, has been deeply involved in the department for more than 40 years, and served as chief in 1991. Bendel joined the Junior Fire Department on her 14th birthday — the youngest a junior firefighter can be — and eventually served as its captain before she graduated from Baldwin High School in 1991 and left to attend SUNY Geneseo.
Werfelman said he never encouraged his daughter to join the department, but it was something she wanted from a young age. “Once she got in, there was no stopping her,” he said. “She just took to the Fire Department like a duck takes to water.”
She had to resign from the junior department when she turned 18, but she didn’t stay away long. “I missed it so much my first year of [college],” she said. “I came back and asked for an application.” In July 1992, she became a member of First Aid Company, where she has volunteered as an EMT for the past 22-plus years.
In 1992 Bendel was one of three female members of the department. (That number has now reached double digits.) In 2003 she made BFD history by becoming the first female captain of a company — First Aid Company — and was re-elected in 2007 and 2010.
As she continued to work in the department, she set her sights on the chief’s office. “It became more real and something I wanted as time went on,” she said. “I just thought it was the natural thing to do.”
