Standing in the bucket of a fire truck ladder extended almost 100 feet above the city, Nichole VanderWerf took in the view through her polarized sunglasses.

She rotated the ladder toward the old public safety building on Sycamore Street and smiled as she talked about her first day working as a part-time firefighter for the Niles Fire Department.

“It is crazy. I never thought I’d be here already,” she said. “What 20-year-old girl can say she already has a job on the fire department? Not many.”

No woman, in fact, had ever been hired to do shift work (non-volunteer work) for the Niles Fire Department. Chief Larry Lamb said VanderWerf is the first.

And while VanderWerf is the first female hired to do shift work for the city, she isn’t the first in her family to put on a firefighter’s uniform.

As a four-year-old, she remembers her dad, Jim, flying out the door on fire calls while volunteering for the Edwardsburg Fire

Department.

“I always thought that was really cool. I especially loved the big trucks, the fire gear — everything,” she said. “We’d have fire washes or fundraisers and, if my dad let me go, I’d wear his gear and walk around waving at people.”

Those moments made a deep impression on Nichole, who decided she would attempt to follow in her father’s footsteps.

In May of 2012 she joined the on-call — or volunteer — staff at Niles Township Fire Department where her father also shared the same title. She trained and became certified like all firefighters must do before she had the distinction of placing the lights on her vehicle.

“Most people say it is an adrenaline rush, but for me it is more like a stress reliever,” Nichole said of running lights and siren.

She even got to share the experience of fighting a fire alongside her dad. She remembers it was a car fire on East Bertrand Road.

“We were the first ones on the scene and were able to pack up together — meaning putting on our air packs and fighting the fire,” she said. “That was cool.”

Nichole is keeping busy.

In addition to her part-time job with Niles Fire, she works part time stocking shelves for a beverage company and part time running calls with the Southwestern Michigan Community Ambulance Service. She also continues to serve as an on-call firefighter for Niles Township.

“I think I worked over 70 hours last week,” she said.

Nichole’s ultimate goal is to land a full-time firefighting position somewhere.

“It’s been two years that I’ve been trying to pursue my dreams and I’m getting closer,” she said. “It is shocking. I didn’t think I would be at this point this fast. It makes me think I can do it.”

As for accommodating female firefighters, Fire Chief Larry Lamb said not much had to be done to the station.

“When we built the station we did so knowing we would eventually get a qualified female applicant that would be doing shift work,” he said.

Firefighters walled off an opening in between two adjoining shower facilities to create separate male and female areas.

“We were good to go for about $100 bucks,” he said.

Men and women will sleep in the same bunkroom, but will adhere to a shirt and shorts rule.