As Desi Thompson started working for the Eugene Fire Department last month, her Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District co-workers sent her off with the highest honor given locally to firefighters.
She was named firefighter of the year. She also received the engineer of the year award. Award winners are selected by their peers.
“I was really surprised,” Thompson said. “I was really surprised at both of them. I just figured there were other people in the district that deserve it more than I did. I definitely feel honored to have it though.”
After three years with the Sweet Home department as an intern, Thompson said, people would joke around with her and give her a hard time. The award represented the serious side that said she also did a good job.
“I’m going to miss working with my crew,” Thompson said. “I’ve been really good friends with the interns and some of the paid people too.”
One of her best friends came to work for the department just before she left, she said, and her new job is taking time up. She missed a cousin’s birthday, but once she gets through training, she will have more time.
“I’ve been making new friends here,” Thompson said. She is getting “really tight” with her classmates.
“When I first came to Sweet Home, it took awhile as a female to find out if I can do this job or not,” Thompson said. Now, it’s like starting over with new obstacles and challenges.
She has been physically challenged, Thompson said. Some of the things she must do as a firefighter can be 10 times harder for her than her male classmates, but she has strengths as well, especially her small size. She can slip into tight spaces more easily. Overall, she faces a couple more obstacles “than a regular, average guy,” but “I like a challenge.”
Thompson is a 1998 graduate of Sweet Home High School. She spent a year attending Southwest Oregon Community College on a softball scholarship. She completed the first year of her associate’s degree there. She earned her firefighter and EMT basic certification there.
With the time required for her courses, Thompson quit playing softball and concentrated on her work. She moved back to Sweet Home and took a year off from school. She was hired as an intern in August 1999, and she started taking classes for some certification. She returned to college in September 2000 and completed her associate’s degree at Lane Community College in June 2001.
She began looking for a new job. She tested for six departments before she was hired by Eugene. She will complete the Eugene academy in two months but remains on probation with the department until March. She plans on staying Eugene for the long term.
“I’d like to work toward getting my engineer (certification) down here,” Thompson said. “It’s the second largest department in the state. It’s very classy. It has one of the most excellent training facilities in the United States.
“I like being in the big city. I like the atmosphere down here. People do a lot of things down here.”
Later on, she may want to work up through the ranks, Thompson said, but for now, she would be happy to be an engineer.
Thompson enjoys every aspect of the work, she said. She enjoys the adrenaline rush of working in fires and helping people, trying to be in control of a situation.
Thompson has been interested in firefighting since she was in grade school.
“I think I was like 10 years old,” she said. “I was really interested in the fire engines and ambulances.”
Her parents knew former Fire Chief Joe Mengore and set up a chance for her to shadow him.
She rode and talked with Chief Mengore, Thompson said. As she got older, she kept in contact with Chief Mengore to learn more about what she needed to do to become a firefighter and paramedic.
“I graduated four years ago,” Thompson said. Now she’s got the job she loves. “It’s been pretty cool. If you just stick to it, you can achieve anything you want to do.”