Gabriel Greschler
Bay Area News Group
(MCT)
沿着洛斯加托斯（Los Gatos）的圣塔克拉拉县消防局总部大厅附近的楼梯间，一排照片沿着前酋长的墙壁延伸了75年。
All of them are men.
4月19日，Suwanna Kerdkaew成为第一位女性，亚裔美国人和LGBT消防局长，领导该县部门及其200多名消防员时，打破了这一全面连胜。
Kerdkaew’s ascent to the role comes at a trying time for the fire department as it deals with pandemic-related staffing shortages and prepares for the momentous challenge of battling the region’s wildfires that have left California skies chock full of smoke in recent years.
Kerdkaew also enters into the role asfire departments around the Bay Area are being scrutinized for their lack of female firefighters。2020年12月圣塔克拉拉县民事陪审团报告归咎于该县和该县其他三个消防部门的妇女缺席，招募技术不佳，性别偏见和缺乏包容性。
In an interview during her second day as chief, Kerdkaew said that while the county fire department has made progress in some areas, there’s room to improve. And she’s determined to push the recruitment of women even further.
Currently, women make up 6 percent of the county firefighting force of 211. The number is slightly higher than the national average of 4 percent, according to the National Fire Protection Association.
“这是一项危险的工作，” Kerdkaew承认。“但是我确实想推动女性知道，如果您是身体上的，那就是您的身体 - 工作的身体 - 您可以取得成功，并且实际上可以在这一职业生涯中升级。”
Born in Bangkok, Thailand in 1967, Kerdkaew and her mother were brought to Riverside County by her step-father, a Vietnam War veteran. In high school, she ran track and played a lot of “sand lot” softball. But she was never part of any organized sports since her family didn’t have a lot of money, she said.
从一开始，她就是开拓者。她成为了她的家庭中第一位研究生学院的人，1997年获得了圣何塞州立大学的生物学学士学位。在大学期间，Kerdkaew在旧金山的UPS中心工作，从拖车到铁路车上装载包裹。她是在Workite的70名男性中工作的两名妇女之一，这是她在男性主导的工作环境中的第一次经历。
While in college, Kerdkaew said she briefly considered becoming a firefighter, but the lack of women discouraged her.
她说：“如果有的话，我还没有看到很多女人。”“我以为，只是待在这条路上，获得您的生物学位，然后从那里走。因为如果您看不到，您就不知道可以。”
在Kerdkaew作为Biotech Company Genentech的应急人员培训的一部分之后，这种观点将改变，与旧金山消防部门一起乘车。
“(I) got hooked,” said Kerdkaew.
The fire chief then obtained her EMT and fire science certifications before entering into and eventually graduating from the county fire academy class of 2002.
该县的消防员工程师谢伊·芒特福德（Shay Mountford）也是克尔德卡（Kerdkaew）毕业的班级的一员，他说，当她在学院内看到另一名妇女时，她很感激。两人也是县消防局中第一个公开的同性恋妇女。
“Being a female in the fire service can be initially intimidating,” said Mountford. “I was relieved to have Suwanna in there. I also had someone who was gay who understood our lifestyle, her struggles, my struggles.”
丹妮丝·格鲁汉（Denise Gluhan）也于2002年毕业于Kerdkaew和Mountford，他回应了有关担任女性工作的类似言论，但表示并不总是最容易进入的环境。
“As a woman, you don’t ask for help to pick things up,” said Gluhan, who retired in 2018. “Because then they’ll say, ‘Hey she can’t do the job.’ You’ll push yourself. And I’m not going to speak to some of the comments that I’ve been privy to, but it hasn’t been supportive. (Kerdkaew’s) really had to prove herself outside the fire department. Her skills, her productivity is why she is there. Its not a personality contest.”
同事们说，克尔德卡（Kerdkaew）已决心在县消防局上留下痕迹。
Kerdkaew immediately went back for more schooling to become a paramedic. In 2011, she graduated to become a captain — a career highlight, she said.
It was also as a captain that Kerdkaew experienced one of the most intense moments in her career.
2014年，Kerdkaew和她的船员被分配到Mendocino County的Lodge Lightning Complex大火。有一次，当事情转向南方时，Kerkaew和她的团队在山脊上升起。
她回忆说：“我们下面的一场大火炸毁了。”“发生的事情是完全的点火。通常，您可以看到火势即将来临，哦，好吧，它来了。（这）一切都立刻着火了。”
A total of nine firefighters had to be evacuated from the scene that day because of burns to their hands or face, she said. And Kerdkaew wondered whether it would be her last deployment.
她说：“当时我的女儿七岁，老实说，我不知道我们那天晚上是否要回家。”“在那一刻，我不知道会发生什么。”
事件发生在门多西诺县（Mendocino County）之后，克尔德卡（Kerdkaew）于2015年返回县消防局，担任该部门紧急医疗服务计划的经理，然后最终成为营负责人。
In 2018, Kerdkaew became deputy chief then acting assistant chief in 2021.
Today, Kerdkaew now heads a fire department serving close to a quarter of a million residents in the cities of Cupertino, Los Altos, Campbell, Los Altos Hills, Monte Sereno, Los Gatos, Saratoga, Redwood Estates, as well as the county’s vast unincorporated areas. She lives with her partner Tina M. Yun and the two have a 14-year-old daughter Alex.
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作为酋长，克尔德卡（Kerdkaew）表示，她想解决2020年民事陪审团报告中的一些建议。它们包括创建更多女性友好的空间，例如独立的更衣室 - Kerdkaew建议也可能需要一种性别中性选择。
Even so, Kerdkaew emphasized that her recruiting goals are not only female-focused.
“I would like to see a time where, regardless of your demographics, whether it be sex, race, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, that your qualifications…that’s all that matters,” she said.
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