Cindie Schooner-Ball
A groundbreaking female firefighter, Cindie Schooner-Ball lived for the thrill of riding backwards on a fire truck, code 3 with lights flashing, sirens wailing, and horns blasting, heading towards that ominous cloud of black smoke.
In this captivating memoir, she vividly describes these high-adrenaline experiences and the stunned look on onlookers’ faces when she got off the truck, put on her hood, face mask, and helmet, and they realized she was a woman.
Hired in June 1987 by a large urban Fire-Rescue Department in South Florida, Cindie rose through the ranks as a firefighter, driver-engineer, paramedic and lieutenant while also earning a degree in fire science. She retired as a captain in 2015 after 28 years on the force.