The Scoop with Tanya Flanagan

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This is a k u NBC Studios original program. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 Jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.

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Good morning, and thank you for joining me for the scoop with Tanya flat again, I'm so happy you decided to wake up and start your day with me. Here on the scoop, where we talk about life, joy, funny moments, trending topics, and so much more. We promise to keep you in the know and find out what you know. So let's get started.

Unknown Speaker 0:47
Good morning, Las Vegas, and welcome to another show. Here on K you wouldn't be nearly 1.5 jazz or more. So excited that you woke up to join me on the scoop. As you know, we are in the middle of Women's History Month. And I thought it would be a great time to continue to focus on women here in our great city who have done amazing things with their life or blaze trails and then something that might be unexpected in the career space. So today that is exactly what we're talking about. And I'm excited and delighted to welcome to be my studio guests my dear Surah of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated LaTanya Lister who is a fire engineer with the City of Las Vegas, Fire and Rescue LaTonya. Good morning. And thank you for joining me.

Unknown Speaker 1:27
Good morning. And thank you for having me.

Unknown Speaker 1:29
I appreciate you're getting up bright and early and getting a cup of coffee and sitting down to share some conversation with me. What you've done or what you did with your life is is truly an amazing feat. And first and I want to talk about it and get into it. But you are the first African American woman to be hired onto a fire department in the state of Nevada. Yes, I am. And you've been on how many years ago was it that you came on?

Unknown Speaker 2:00
I was hired in November of 1994, November 1 1994 30, almost 30 29.5 years? Yeah. Um, that's quite a while ago, and a really different time in the fire service. I

Unknown Speaker 2:15
remember when you came on. A few months later, I came or maybe a year later you said it was November of 94. So a year later, in November of 95, I moved to Las Vegas to become a reporter with The Las Vegas review journal and I covered Fire and Rescue. And so I got into the weeds of what was going on in the fire service and some of the treatment and just you know, the standards, we always refer to it as a paramilitary organization. And so took a lot of courage to decide to go and to the fire service. Why was that? You know, what called you?

Unknown Speaker 2:56
Well, actually, I graduated from UNLV. And at the time, Las Vegas was going through kind of like a recession. And I was worried I was worried. I graduated with a Bachelor science degree, but I wasn't working in my field. And I really needed a job. And I also was a UNLV track athlete. So at the time the fire department was hiring and I thought, Wow, this would be a great opportunity because it combined physical agility would also serving the community. And the more I researched it, I was like, wow, this is a great field a great opportunity and had a lot of potential growth that you can be on because there's other jobs besides firefighting within the fire department. And I thought this would be a great career path for me.

Unknown Speaker 3:47
Where are you? I don't know. Like, what were you thinking? Did you know you were going to be the first? No, there were other women on the department. Right? Yeah. And I hadn't but you didn't know you were going to be the first knock. I'm an American.

Unknown Speaker 4:04
I had no idea.

Unknown Speaker 4:05
What was that? Like when you found out that that was the role the space you were about to occupy? Well, there

Unknown Speaker 4:13
was a lot of extra pressure on me to be perfect to like perform. A lot of people would look at me judge me a lot because I had to represent it. Well. It felt like I had to represent every African entire race of people. Just black women just an entire race of people. So

Unknown Speaker 4:35
did it feel like you were being judged being watched? Just the pressure in the example that you had to set to to study longer workout harder. What was that like?

Unknown Speaker 4:53
I pretty much felt even from the beginning of rookie school. I had to be perfect and I am I remember one time, we would like partner up. And we get, we would get evaluated by the evaluator. And I noticed my counterpart had a higher evaluation score than I had. And she just merely said, Well, you just don't look as confident. So I was judged, even by the way I looked. So and it was just kinda like, well, all right, I'll just keep my nose down and just do whatever they say for me to do. But it's like any woman, like even though I was the first black, I was maybe like, the 10th. Woman on the fire department just pure. So altogether was a super, let's just say, Yeah, even even right now women only make up like 4% of the fire department in suppression. So pretty much, you know, when you have a majority of men, and then a little bit of a small amount of women, mostly men tend to evaluate how well a woman it's working, how strong she is. And she's able to keep up. Because we haven't we do have a very physical job, it can be very demanding on your body. So with that, but yeah, I was very critical on myself to be perfect. Coming

Unknown Speaker 6:16
out these years, you know, forward later, do you think it's changing? Do you feel like I mean, you just mentioned that there's only like, 4%. So, and I know, there's a lot of campaigns out there from time to time to try to engage women and interest them, and wanting to have a career in the fire service. If you are speaking to in, let's say, you are speaking to young girls right now in this space, who might be listening, and considering or maybe they've never considered it, but like, you are looking for a great career path. What would you say to them to give them you know,

Unknown Speaker 6:50
I would, I would tell them to come out. And we have a lot of the we have a lot of programs available for people to come and observe the fire department, it really is a great career, I wish more women would come out in, think about it. I know the images that we see is mostly male. But it's it's a very good career for women to get into what do you think they're afraid? I

Unknown Speaker 7:19
mean, I have these conversations about recruitment efforts. And I see the agencies go through the motions of doing videos and having women do testimonials about being in the fire service or how to manage everything from their hair, because it's really a different space where you're talking about a career that was male dominated for so long. So all of the quarters were suited for men. And when you're on you do shifts that are like 24 to 4872 hours it's like 4872 hours on and then there's so many hours that you're off and then you come back and you do another rotation of that shift with your ABC whatever your platoon I'm not sure if this man hell but you know what, it's what they how they do that the adjustment of being if you're the only female or maybe two or working in that platoon, if you only have 4% What does that like to get your head wrapped around? Well,

Unknown Speaker 8:16
we do have our brother and sisterhood type of organization. So I can tell you in the past it was a little bit rough at times, a lot of different personalities. But now it's a lot better than it was in the past. And we truly do try to have that brother sisterhood you know connection. Is

Unknown Speaker 8:39
that what you liked about it? Maybe the most one of the things you'd like the most the Brotherhood sisterhood component of it or get something What do you like?

Unknown Speaker 8:46
Yes. Because in the one thing I can tell you about working in the fire department. I remember a long time ago, my chief corrected me because I'm like, Oh, yes, a good job. And he's like, No, it's not a job. It's a career. And it truly is because you grow up with these people. So like when I had a child, my daughter calls some of my co workers uncle because I spend so much time at the fire station and she comes up there and she she grew up with them they remember when I was pregnant to when she graduated from high school. So we truly do and we do like a lot of family outings outside of work. Because we were we are there 24 hours or 48 hours. And that's another thing to like with the fire department. If you are a single mom, you're able to provide for your children you know and you can make it all have a single income and so many people nowadays you need both incomes and on the fire department. We do work 10 days a month we have 20 days off. The longest part is just being on a 24 or 48 hour shift. But for the whole month we only work the 10 days. You have the other 20 days off to vacation travel. You know, I was also like, it participated with my daughter's class as a assistant all the time, because I had a lot of free time. So that's a lot of things that the fire department offered me besides like, also, they offer, if you want to go back to school and get your college degree, they pay for that. So there's, there's great opportunities with

Unknown Speaker 10:29
people all the time talk about the mindset, that it's a certain type that it's a certain type of individual who becomes, you know, goes into the fire service, like I've gone out, I've had the privilege of being invited to go out and like see some of the birds when the rookies are in school. And to see how difficult the training is and how strenuous it is. What do you say to the argument that it takes a certain mental or type of person,

Unknown Speaker 11:00
I use that true? It's true because it

Unknown Speaker 11:03
different women, because I mean, women are different from men are different from men. So man's mind different than the woman's mind, the body, the word, workout. And then as a rookie, they're trying not to treat you differently, right? Because they don't want to single you out as a woman, but what they're doing, got a guy might be like, really rough. How did you handle? You know, some of that? Can you talk about that?

Unknown Speaker 11:29
Well, I think the way that men speak to other men is different than the way that women speak to other women, or how how women would like to be spoke to by a man. But I do feel that men in Academy, they're probably physically stronger than us. But I do believe women are mentally stronger than men. And there's a point like in the academy, and it's, it's, the test is like a failure test. So they, they have your, you're on that SCBA that's like the face masks that we wear. And you you're breathing oxygen, and you just keep on working until you're just completely out of air. So there is there is like a test or they're gonna physically exhaust you until you just fall over. You know, and once you get past that point where you can just fall over, and then they're like, Okay, you're down, but get back up, we still have more work to do, once you get over that, that part where you where you feel like you're just gonna pass out you can't give anymore. And you get past that point. And I think that's what separates even like that whole mental physical thing. Because I've been at times where I'm like, normally in a workout, I'm like, Okay, I'm done. But if you're at a fire, you're not done until that fire is out. So it can be I've been on fire three, you're on the fire for like, eight, nine hours, you know, you're just like, I'm so tired. But there's, there's no stop, you know. And if you can get through that, it's

Unknown Speaker 12:59
it you can get through it. You can you can do it, you can do it and do it. Because it's the space of endurance, it's like, and I never really, you know, you're making me think about it completely differently in terms of what it requires. But you're right, you're, you're out a fire. And some family is hoping that you're saving some, you know, they're already losing part of this neighborhood. Right? So what are we saving, especially in huge fire situations? Like what are we saving? And everyone's always happy. You know, they always say people are happy to see the fire department show up because you're here to save and to make a difference. And so I never thought about it like getting to the threshold where you're at the breaking point. And knowing that there is no quitting. And there may be a rotation now there's a refresh, there's a when it can be I guess there's a trading out of crews to respond to that same incident. But no one's no one's going anywhere. Just breathe in for like 15 minutes or something or whatever that timeframe is, before you're back in there to do something else in the strategy of trying to get the fire contained. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 14:11
we call it rehab. So you get rehab, especially in the summer, in the summer when it's like 105 110 and then you hang on to all that gear and everything and you're sweating, you're tired and they'll pull you out and you get like I don't know 10 minutes break and then they do a set of vitals and they're like are you good? Go back again. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 14:34
is that also a little bit thrilling though like knowing that you are pumped up and you have gotten your body and your mental capacity and your physical capacity to a point to be able to handle this because I admire you because I know growing up as a little girl we've always been told you can do anything that you can dream and believe that you want to do or you you know want to try to do. I have to honestly say I respect it. I I admire it. I remember as a reporter, I did an article on Trina Giles, who became the first African American woman to join the Clark County Fire Department. And as a reporter, I was tasked with the idea of following a rookie around, and they wouldn't let me follow Trina, at this point, you're already on the department saw I found out then that that's why I knew you reverse and she, you know, was coming in behind. Because I found out you were over at the city at the time, they will let me follow trainer. And the idea was, what if she fails? Then you're following this rookie female through the fire academy? Who then doesn't make it? And what is the story. So I had to follow a male recruit, to see what it was like to be a rookie in the Fire Academy through his entire journey, because they were certain that he would make it but they weren't certain that she would make it. She did make it went on to have a stellar career as you have done and to retire from the County Fire Department. They wouldn't let me follow her. And I've never as a female thought, oh, I want to be a firefighter like, I wasn't that girl. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 16:08
but I can I can probably see why just because the the woman's failure rate is higher than that man. You know, so I

Unknown Speaker 16:16
got it. As a reporter I totally understood you know, what we were dealing with. I did later do an article on her once she made it through, we sat down, we had a nice conversation. And I wrote an article about her life. And it's it's a privilege to come 29 years later, for me 28. And to have the opportunity to have a conversation with you about your career in the fire service. The same as I started, I talked with her when she was at the start of it, you're at the end. So she was looking ahead and you're reflecting. And it's really nice to have this opportunity to sit with you and reflect on your career During Women's History Month.

Unknown Speaker 16:56
I want to say one of the biggest things I remember as being like the young 23 year old in the Fire Academy. I think for any women out there, even if you're doing a non traditional field, you have to believe in yourself that you can do it. That's like the biggest part. Because even some of the women on our job, we come in all shapes and sizes. But if you believe in your in your head that you can do something you can do it, you just truly need to believe

Unknown Speaker 17:26
in the concept that if you can see it, you can manifest it and make it a reality now, you know, we're gonna have a little girl talk to just for a second while we're here talking this morning, because one of the things that comes up all the time, is what it takes to maintain yourself. One of the things that comes up all the time is what it takes to maintain yourself. Because you know, as women we do a lot beauty skin hair, whatever. You're gorgeous. You're absolutely gorgeous. And what is that? Like? I mean, you mentioned being hot, sweating hair. I mean, clearly, no one's wearing makeup. So that's not an issue, but you want to feel beautiful. So there are things that you do. How do you how do you adjust to that part, because sweating, you're working out all the time and they talk about the women who sometimes cut all their hair off because the guys do the buzz cuts do the girls ever do?

Unknown Speaker 18:24
Well you do have your choice. Some women want to be considered just like the men so they choose to cut their hair. With the city and the county as long as you have it pinned up or in a ponytail above your collar then you meet you know dress code. Um, at the time that I went through, I didn't cut my hair but it was fine. And when it comes to looks I mean on the fire department a lot of guys take their looks very serious to so we're very into like, working out Sam fit. We actually all eat pretty healthy even though we eat like these really nice meals because Chow is like everything to us. That's our dinners. But there were all kind of, I guess a little bit vain, but in a good way.

Unknown Speaker 19:16
Some of the best cooks tell me when you get into that. Did you know how to cook before is that like also a space where you kind of have to carry

Unknown Speaker 19:22
X rays where you have to cook I actually learned on the job. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 19:27
like I'm wondering is it like a course where when you're because you don't think about the behind the scenes things that go on in the fire service. You know, it's like a family and I've been around you know some of the events and you do see how connected people are how much they lean in and it's like brothers and sisters, like you said, it's another extension of your family. You have all these brothers and sisters, and all these cooking tricks and I remember being invited as a reporter to chow once You know, and they were doing I mean, that's when I started putting garlic in grains because somebody had put garlic in the grains. And I was like, oh, wait a minute, let me

Unknown Speaker 20:09
let me draw this now you fry it, we pride ourselves on our, our cooking skills. We're always trying to show out like who can cook the best. And I actually cooked for 10 years because I remember the fire station, we actually caught like our firehouse, so we treat it like a house. And I cooked for 10 years. And, and not because I was a woman, it was just because I was a very picky eater. So I wanted to eat what I wanted to see all the time. And so whoever is the cook kind of dictates what's on the menu for the day. Okay.

Unknown Speaker 20:41
So yeah, that's how you control the narrative. What is Is there anything that any regrets, as you look back over all the time you've spent on the fire department? Yes,

Unknown Speaker 20:51
I have regrets. I remember being a strong woman, like I said, I graduated from UNLV, I used to run track, and also had three brothers, I'm the only the only girl with three brothers. And so I was used to like being teased or talk to you and maybe even shoved a little bit. But I always had a voice in somewhere on the fire department predominantly working with men, and they're predominantly Alpha men, you kind of lose your voice. And especially with having been outnumbered, like some of the fire stations, I was the only woman or I didn't even see the other women. And so now that I'm older, I'm just now finding my voice again, that's interesting, being able to speak up and you know, say, hey, no, this isn't right, or, you know, hey, this should be fair, or, you know, and I think women as a whole, we don't speak up, we you know, and that's what, that's my regret, like, I should have spoken up more, even though it's like difficult, you know, and then being comfortable with being in a difficult situation. And still having your voice and being able to speak out.

Unknown Speaker 22:09
But you're not. And I'm glad you were honest enough to talk about that. And to reference it because it takes courage, but it takes maturity. And it takes growth and coming into who you are. And I think as we travel our journeys in different career space, and even more so as African American women, because you're carrying the weight of the history of a race of people, and how those people have been oppressed for a really long time, like, you know, with slavery and coming through everything that has happened to find yourself in careers and in new spaces and new rooms. It takes a lot to settle into Who am I in that space. And when you're first, there's no one who's gone before you to say, here's what I went through, or here's how to handle this, you know, it's just like being the first person to sit at the table in a boardroom, if you're the first to sit at that table in the boardroom, who's gone before you to help you understand how to navigate this space. But it also is, I think, a tremendous opportunity in giving back to look at others who are coming behind you because you are a trailblazer, you're the first and you've done exceptionally well to survive in a paramilitary organization and to promote me You've held a number of different positions and you've promoted so you've taken on new responsibility. You've shown your ability to adapt and to grow, to reach back and to help others navigate that same space. So that going forward is different for the women who come behind you, especially women of color who come behind you. And just women in general, I found in my career space that even though as an African American woman, it was very different. The marginalization the marginalizing was very different. I also found that my Caucasian counterparts, were struggling, in some ways, just the same. You know, they might have had different roles seated at the table. But I've saw them fighting and scrapping for presents and for respect, and consideration of thought. And so I know that as women as the whole work, we're going through that, but I have to say kudos to you for what you've done, who you become where you are, the career that you chose. What is something that you really liked better? Because I don't want to somebody was the brother sister component, that was the best thing. So what was I really cool about being? Well,

Unknown Speaker 24:55
I think I always brag about like when you go into to work, you probably have like, check your emails and respond back. I go into work and there's no set agenda. You know, every day is different. Every call is different. Every fire is different. So I like the spontaneity of the day, you know, because everything in the No day is exactly the same. We have some routine things that we do in the morning, like clean the station and spec, the fire trucks, but then after that, you're just you're, it's like whatever random thing is gonna happen.

Unknown Speaker 25:32
Can you talk I know it's, it might be some confidentiality, but like getting into, obviously, any descriptions. What's one of the strangest, craziest calls you've ever gone out on? Who Well,

Unknown Speaker 25:44
I can tell you I've been on the reo fire when it was under construction, or they were adding on I've been on the strategy or fire. I've been on our lady of Las Vegas. They had a fire. Yeah, Summerlin was under construction. This is way back that fire. They had two fires I'm in on I was on both of that. And the Crazy Horse. I was on that fire too. Those were huge fires like huge they

Unknown Speaker 26:12
were in it's so crazy that as you sit here because we're kind of really close in age. We might be the same age. I was a reporter. A lot of the times you were at a fire so I was there either getting information or just very aware. Remember, they are lady in Las Vegas fire.

Unknown Speaker 26:31
It was huge. I was in there and they pulled me out. I remember.

Unknown Speaker 26:36
Recently he passed me rest in peace. Battalion Chief Lauren's workload. Yeah, was often the battalion chief on fires when I was on duty.

Unknown Speaker 26:46
And I was on the Moulin Rouge prior to pretty much any major fire. I've been on it. Yeah, that's some best the ones I

Unknown Speaker 26:53
read, I was a reporter. And I would go out to the scene that I remember because he would be sitting in the truck, telling everyone what to do. Like he was so cool. And you know, collected super good guy, but whatever. And whenever I was reporting something, that I didn't know what was going on, or they might want me to find details of a vehicle fire on I 15 that was happening at 5:20pm that a photographer got wild what we considered wild art photography. Are you serious right now, he wrote down nothing about the car. Nothing about exactly where it was. He just photographed a vehicle fire on the freeway, and you want me to get all this information. And I will call chief Wickliffe. And he would do his best and he would track it down. And if he if he could get it, he would get it. But I remember all those fires, you had quite quite the career of visa

Unknown Speaker 27:46
downplaying into a house fire. Oh, wow.

Unknown Speaker 27:50
When you're going through all of that, and you're helping others behind you, and we're getting down to our last few minutes. Do you ever like to classes or talk or welcome people to participate in where they talk about how to go into the services people find you? I know you're really a private, you know, citizen bag? If so, if

Unknown Speaker 28:14
they reach out to the city of Las Vegas Fire Rescue, and we do have someone in charge that will give Jordan Moore from Las Vegas Fire and Rescue. She's our Pio. And if you reach out to her through the city of Las Vegas Fire and Rescue, and she can contact me or someone like me.

Unknown Speaker 28:40
Sounds good. I want to say we're coming down to the wire just want to say thank you to my wonderful sower and friend for coming on and talking during women Women's History Month about an amazing and unique career that you don't see a lot of women in but when you do see him at the tip my hat and say thank you for all that you do. Oh, thank you.

Unknown Speaker 29:02
Thank you for having me and all the future female firefighters out there.

Unknown Speaker 29:06
You will love this career. You can do it. You can you can do it. Well, Las Vegas. I hope you are inspired and thinking about a different career if you weren't thinking about it before. Thank you for tuning in. Have a great week, and we'll talk to you next I want to thank you for tuning into the scoop with me Tony Flanagan and I want to invite you to get social with me I'm on Facebook and Twitter. My name is my handle ta NYFLA na GA N You can also find me on Instagram at Tanya almond eyes Flanagan and if you have a thought and opinion or a suggestion, don't hesitate to shoot me an email to tanya.flanagan@unlv.edu Thanks again for joining in. Stay safe and have a great week.

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