The first woman to become a certified firefighter at Vicksburg Fire Department is retiring after more than 23 years of service.
Fire inspector and investigator Leslie Sanders’ last day on the job is Thursday as she prepares to leave behind her fire service family for her own family.
“I’m physical ready. I’m mentally ready, but I’m not emotionally ready,” Sanders said this week from her office at Central Fire Station on Walnut Street.
Sanders joined VFD Oct 1, 1991, as a fire department dispatcher and later became the first woman to work in the department as a certified firefighter.
“That was a big accomplishment,” Sanders said.
At the state fire academy, she was the only woman in her class, and became the only woman at the time living and working at a city fire station.
“She was working in a man’s world as a lady,” Fire Chief Charles Atkins said. “She was committed and dedicated to what she was doing, but she never changed who she was. She was dedicated to her family, the Vicksburg Fire Department family and a lot of other families too.”
After 15 years of being on call 24 hours a day as fire inspector, it’s time to rest. In her retirement, Sanders said, she plans to spend time with her two children and two grandchildren.
“Let them take care of you, because you’ve taken care of us a long time,” Atkins said.
Sanders said she wished her father, Bobby Sanders, was still alive to see her retirement. He died in 2011. Her mother, Mary, died about the time she joined the fire service.
“My Daddy was always my biggest supporter. I thought he wouldn’t want me to go in the fire service. I wish he was here to see I had reached my goal,” she said.
Working in her most recent roll as fire inspector and investigator, Sanders has educated thousands of Vicksburg residents on fire safety though the city’s annual Fire Safety Day program and by visiting homes of the elderly. It’s these opportunities and the humor involved in daily life at the firehouse that Sanders says she will miss the most.
“I have those happy memories, and God has protected my mind because we see the worst of the worst in the fire service,” Sanders said.
Sanders also offered a bit of advice for young women considering joining the fire service.
“If they had faith, they can do it. But they have to remember they have to carry their load to gain respect,” she said.
Sander’s retirement leaves the department without an inspector. Atkins said VFD is looking to fill the roll. The job is posted on the City of Vicksburg website.