By Anthony Rifilato
The call was not out of the ordinary for Werfelman, but for the past month, she has responded to emergencies under a new title, that of captain. There have been many captains in the department, but Werfelman, 29, is the first woman in the history of the Baldwin Fire Department to achieve the rank.
Her trajectory through the ranks of the department has been unexpected, she says. It has been a ride filled with both turbulence and pleasant surprises. "It's not something I ever thought would happen, but it was a natural
progression," Werfelman said.
Last Saturday, her father, Bill Werfelman, an ex-chief, swore her in at a ceremony at the Rose Boulevard Fire Department. "I'm daddy's little girl," she said.
As a captain of the first-aid company, Werfelman is responsible for two ambulances, a rescue truck and a crew of 31 emergency workers. "This is my family," she said of the department.
In what is typically a "boys' club," Werfelman's tenacity and dedication to the Baldwin Fire Department became clear when she was young. An older sister to two brothers, she was the only one who decided to follow her father's lead. She joined the junior fire department when she was in high school, and in a sign of things to come, became its captain.
When she attended Geneseo College, she would trek back home during vacations, taking EMT classes and training at the fire service academy in Bethpage. She joined the fire department in 1992 and rose to the rank of lieutenant, a position she has held for the past three years.
Her colleagues lauded her abilities. "She got there because of who she is, not just because she is a woman," said First Deputy Chief Tom Brown. "Anyone who rises to the rank of captain has certainly done their part."
She has received an EMS award for excellence as well as several other awards for her calls to duty. Those calls are not always easy, especially for an emergency unit. Werfelman has confronted many tragic situations. Chest pains, choking, falls, explosions and car wrecks often sound the alarms in Werfelman's world, and there were 1,016 urgent calls in 2002, she said.
"When the radio goes off, we do whatever is necessary," said Werfelman.
The emotional aftershocks of rescues haven't lessened her commitment. "You try not to take it home with you," she said. "Sometimes after a call, we try to talk it out. But you can't take it home with you. It's part of the job."
On average, Werfelman said, the department receives three to five calls a day, and the days can be quite busy. On Super Bowl Sunday, she responded to 13 calls, including a house explosion in Lakeview.
"I was getting sports updates on my pager," she joked.
Though Werfelman is setting a precedent within the department today, she first gained notoriety a year ago, albeit reluctantly. The week after the Sept. 11 attacks, Werfelman, like so many others, was compelled to respond to the disaster. To assist with the rescue efforts, she took several days off from her job as a high school math teacher in Hicksville. Afterward, Werfelman said, she was reprimanded by her superiors for missing school and not following proper procedures in requesting time off.
The incident sparked an outcry by members of the community, and created something of a media frenzy when Werfelman (who was interviewed on CNN) and others protested the district's nitpicking at a heated school board meeting. She said she received overwhelming support from her colleagues in the fire department both for her contribution during the crisis and the subsequent controversy it created.
"Those days I felt a greater calling to be there," said Werfelman, who added that the drama at work has abated. "There have been no problems at work this year."
But it was the devastation of witnessing the aftermath of the World Trade Center disaster that has stuck with her more than the school district debacle. Werfelman assisted at emergency staging areas and was part of a team that set up floodlights and removed broken windows from One Liberty Plaza so rescue workers wouldn't get hurt.
"You take it one day at a time and live with what's happened," she said of the indelible experience.
Now that she's reached the upper echelons of the department, Werfelman is finding her footing and growing accustomed to life as a captain. "It was a rough start," she said, "but I'm definitely getting used to it."
