Title

Denise DeMars

Creation Date

April 4 2008

Description

An oral history interview with Denise DeMars was conducted April 4, 2008 at Anoka County History Center. DeMars grew up in Columbia Heights and was a deputy sheriff for Hennepin County in 1978.  In the same year she also started as volunteer fire fighter in Columbia Heights. In 1980 she took the Firefighter I program at Hennepin Technical College, and with that training she could participate in weekly drills at the Columbia Heights fire department. She became a full time firefighter in Oct 1980. The first full-time female firefighter in Minnesota. By 1988 she was no longer a firefighter but was investigating fires and later was the State Fire Marshall. The interview includes several stories about specific fires that DeMars remembered and examples of difficulties that she faced as the first female in that line of work.
Darlene Bearl was the interviewer. The interview has a transcript and is digitized. It is stored on cassette, floppy disc and C/D.