Pioneer for Women in Danbury Retires From Fire Department

Before Lorinda Arconti joined the Danbury Fire Department 32 years ago, there wasn't a single female firefighter in Danbury.

Since then, a lot has changed, and as Lorinda retires from the job she's loved since July of 1987, there are now five female firefighters within the city’s 112-member career division.

So you can call Lorinda a trailblazer, but as is the case with those who pave the way for others, it didn't come easy.

She recently told ctinsider.com the significance and the pressures that came with setting a new standard for women at the department:

I knew I was coming into a department that was all men, I just wanted to be able to do the job with the rest of them. Hopefully it shows that anyone who wants to do the job — it doesn’t matter who you are — if you put in the time, desire and work to do the job well, then you’ll be able to do it.

Firefighting was in her blood growing up in Bethel. Both her parents were volunteers, and she joined that department in 1984 and worked along side her dad. They became the first father-daughter duo in the history of the Bethel Fire Department.

A few years later, she moved to Danbury and wanted to help out in her new town, so she joined the Danbury Fire Department, and as they say the rest is history.

Lorinda was not just the first female firefighter in Danbury, she was also promoted and became the first female lieutenant in 1999.

This is the best job in the world — not only the people you work with, but the satisfaction of being out there helping the citizens of Danbury with whatever they need.

Lorinda's career has been a series of three's she said. She worked three decades, worked three days on and three days off for her entire career.

It still hasn’t sunk in that I'm retired, it will probably feel more real around the holidays. I’m happy my kids had 110 other fathers. It’s a family here. They got your back and you have theirs.

Congratulations and good luck to Lorinda in her retirement, and thanks for your 32 years of service to the Danbury community.