What It Takes to Be a Female Firefighter | Tina Guiler

Female firefighters make up just four to six percent of all firefighters in the United States—and Tina Guiler is on a mission to change that. A 23-year veteran with Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, Tina started the Triple F (Fierce Female Firefighters) group that now connects over 7,000 women firefighters across 58 countries. After surviving breast cancer in 2018, she launched the Triple F Foundation to support firefighters battling cancer and on-the-job injuries. And then she created something the world had never seen: authentic female firefighter plush dolls named Ember and Molly—the latter honoring Molly Williams, the first known female firefighter in U.S. history from 1815. In this powerful conversation with host Dara Levan, Tina shares her journey from tomboy to firefighter, the mental and physical toll of the job, delivering three babies on the job, and why her motto "together we are stronger" is more than words—it's a lifeline.

Keywords: female firefighters, Triple F, firefighter dolls, breast cancer survivor, women in fire service, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, firefighter foundation, PTSD in firefighters.

0:00 - Intro & welcome
2:09 - What is Triple F?
5:47 - Breast cancer diagnosis & foundation
6:59 - Women's issues in the fire service
9:31 - How Tina became a firefighter
11:12 - Why women firefighters are still rare
13:01 - Introducing Ember & Molly dolls
15:14 - "If they can see it, they can be it"
17:39 - Where to buy the dolls
19:22 - Female firefighter calendar
20:05 - Delivering three babies on the job
20:51 - EMT vs. Paramedic explained
22:06 - Surfside building collapse & PTSD
25:21 - Navigating holidays as a firefighter
28:03 - Message to her 5-year-old self
29:41 - Outro

• https://www.instagram.com/dara.levan/
• Website: daralevan.com3
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tina-guiler-triplef

QUOTES:

"A lot of firefighters, pretty much every firefighter has somewhat of PTSD because we see things that people normally don't ever see."
– Tina Guiler


"If you impact one person, that's huge because then hopefully it's like you put the stone in the water and those ripples go out."
– Dara Levan