DeLand Fire Dept. Hires First Black Female Firefighter

DeLand, FL – The DeLand Fire Department (DFD) is officially welcoming 24-year-old Dejah Woods to the DFD. She is the third woman currently in the ranks and the first black female hired, according to DFD records. Woods comes to the DFD from Daytona Beach, where she enrolled in the firefighter program at Daytona State College. She attended a Pumper Pull and according to a press release, the bond and camaraderie between our firefighters stood out. "I couldn’t help but notice that DeLand’s pumper pull team was more in sync than any other team, including mine," she said. "This brought me to believe that they’ve built the bond that made me fall in love with firefighting, and I want to be a part of that. I want to be part of a team whose main focus is helping the community, my community. Whether it is a fire, flood, hazardous materials incident, or even a medical emergency, I want to be a helping hand in the community I grew up in and role model to children around the city and neighboring cities." According to statistics, "females account for less than five percent of all firefighters across the nation; black firefighters account for about 7.5 percent of all firefighters in the U.S. and it is believed black female firefighters make up an even smaller percentage than that. " "It’s exciting to know that I could be the start of an even more diverse fire department in DeLand and other departments," she said. "As long as we all have the heart for it, it doesn’t matter the color, size, shape, gender, none of that matters."   Woods said she is happy to be a part of the DeLand FD. "It’s been pretty much everything that I imagined it would be," she said.