Sisters who serve: 13 women volunteer with Wood River Fire Department

When you hear Barb Dvorak talk about her "sisters," you immediately know she's not referring to the biological kind.

Her T-shirt gives away her meaning: "All women are created equal," it reads above a picture of women in firefighting gear. "And then a few become sisters."

Dvorak has plenty of sisters in the Wood River Fire Department -- 13, to be exact. Together, they make up about a third of the town's all-volunteer force. And the bond between them goes far beyond responding to calls together.

"We see more of this family than we do of our other families," said Dvorak, a firefighter with the department since 1990.

It's certainly unusual for towns to have so many female firefighters -- Grand Island's department is without a woman, and many small towns only have a few. But Wood River's women have been "one of the guys" for quite some time.

"In the 10 years I've been on (the department), I've always been treated as an equal," said Kalyn King, a firefighter and full-time nurse.

For many of the women, fire and rescue is a family affair. Most of their husbands are with the department, and several -- like Sherrie Rathman, a 17-year veteran -- had fathers who served, too.

For some, the motivation to join was simple. King's husband, Todd, was a firefighter, and she "just got damn tired of being home alone" when he went on calls.

Others got roped in. Shortly after moving to Wood River three years ago, Amy Leaming attended the department's Christmas dinner with her husband, Dan, a firefighter. The women there were urging her to join, saying she'd make a great firefighter.

"I thought they were crazy. There was no way I was doing it," Leaming said. "Three months later, they had me."

Now, those women rave about Leaming, calling her one of the department's dedicated and talented new firefighters.

And Leaming calls the decision to join a life-changing one that's taught her not to take the little things for granted.

"You really appreciate life," she said. "You see all aspects of life, from beginning to end, and how easily it can be taken away."

Ever since two of the town's firefighters died of injuries suffered while fighting a house fire in 2004, Wood River's firefighters level of care for each other as a family has intensified, several women said.

Members keep an unwavering eye on their one another's safety regardless of whether they're men or women.

Still, there may be some distinct advantages of having women on a scene, said Todd King, chief of the department.

While he said he couldn't make comparisons between men and women as a whole, King said many emergency patients seem more comforted to know that a woman is on the scene.

And he said that having many women in the department alongside their husbands, brothers or fathers helps lend a family atmosphere.

"It probably draws us closer because not only do we do things as a fire department, but we do things as a family in the fire department," King said.

Several women said it might be difficult to be one of only two or three women in a small fire department, as they've encountered men from other departments who see their work on the scene as "getting in the way."

But make no mistake -- these women are trained on every one of the same aspects of firefighting and emergency medical service as their male counterparts.

They love the adrenaline rush of an urgent call, the thrill of working well with a team, the satisfaction of knowing they've helped save a life.

And outside of the calls, they relish the barbecues each weekend, the trips to the lake in the summer, the feeling of knowing there's a group of people -- including a dozen women -- who have your back, no matter what.

It's what's kept several of them going for more than a decade, and what has them encouraging their own children to someday take on "the toughest job you'll ever love."

"It's very hard work, and you go through a lot of tough times," Leaming said. "But you love every minute of it.”