Los Alamos Fire Department Battalion Chief has moved from her former position as Safety Division Chief to B Shift Chief. Photo by Maire O’Neill/ladailypost.com
Los Alamos Fire Department Battalion Chief Wendy Servey’s first career choice was not firefighting but from the moment you meet her, you realize that she truly found her calling when she first became a career fire medic.
Originally from near Cleveland, she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Applied Science – Design and Visual Communications at Bowling Green State University which she put to work for several years before taking night classes in fire and emergency medical services. Eventually Servey joined a fire department in Coventry Township near Akron as their first female fire medic and worked her way up to shift leader.
“Being the first female in the department was more of an issue for the guys than it was for me. It was a change for them, but for me it was more about being a rookie and doing the right thing, knowing your job and learning what you can,” Servey said. “Later I heard that their wives and girlfriends were actually more concerned than they were.”
After seven years, a friend moved to New Mexico and Servey decided to take a look.
LAFD Battalion Chief Wendy Servey stops by Station 4. Photo by Maire O’Neill/ladailypost.com
“I was being scripted for a desk job and wasn’t ready to get off the street,” she said. So she accepted a job as firefighter/paramedic with Santa Fe County where she worked for two years. She applied to Los Alamos Fire Department in 2006 because she decided she liked the structure of a “career department” and went through her third fire academy.
In 2009, Servey was promoted to the rank of Captain and went on to obtain an Associate’s Degree in Firefighting and Fire Science before being promoted to Battalion Chief in 2014. She spent three years as Chief of the Safety Division and just recently became Battalion Chief for B Shift following the retirement of Chief Justin Cassell.
Her new Operations position puts Servey in charge of five firehouses and 37 personnel. She said the captains of the individual firehouses do an excellent job supervising their own stations.
“If there is an alarm with multiple units called out, I take incident command and work with the captain to do what we need to do to mitigate the incident,” Servey said.
Servey said she loves being in operations with 48 hours on duty followed by four days off. She lives in El Dorado with her partner Liz who is a registered nurse at University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque. They both volunteer for El Dorado Fire and Rescue Service where Servey is the elected District Chief.
“When I am not working for LAFD, I volunteer for El Dorado. If there’s a call and I’m available, I go,” she said.
Asked what she likes to do when she is not following her passion, Servey said she likes to hike and take “killer vacations” every now and then.
A Cleveland Browns fan, Servey let it slip that at one time she played defensive end on a flag football team in the national championships, probably one of many little-known facts about LAFD’s first female Battalion Chief.