BEATRICE, NEB. - Blazing trails, while battling blazes - that’s the story for Beatrice Fire and Rescue’s two newest members.

Kirsten Kieper and Tiffany Carnahan are the first two female firefighters on staff in over eight years.

“We get to represent females in this fire department now and that’s an incredible axe to carry,” Kieper said.

The two are the first females in the department since Julie Fisher retired in 2016 after 18 years of service.

Kieper is a University of Nebraska-Lincoln alum who fell in love with firefighting during an EMT class during her undergrad. Carnahan had plans to be a physicians assistant while attending Doane University, but transitioned after spending time with the Crete Fire Department.

The two began their training on September 23 and will graduate on October 18.

“We’re starting from the very beginning.. How do we put on our gear? How do we put on our safety net and stuff like what’s in our truck and how do we use our truck,“ Caranahan said.

“That way when we start our shifts, we can be more functional, and more then just like “Oh I know the ambulance’” Kieper said.

Kieper and Carnahan enter a unique situation as they enter an all male department. Carnahan had a sense for what that would be like from her time in Crete, and her and Kieper have been made comfortable by an even demographic in their academy class.

“Our academy class is 50-50, two boys, two females and I think we work really well together,” Carnahan said. “We have our moments when we stress out, but we’re all here and trying to get things done.”

And for the current on staff firefighters, Kieper said they’ve been welcomed as well.

“The guys at the station are great,” Kieper said. “They’ve definitely welcomed us just like the guys in our academy class. There’s some things where they’re like ‘Oh, we’ll get this changed’ to better accommodate us.”

All this begs the question, why Beatrice? For Carnahan, all it took was a simple drive through town and a look at Beatrice’s new station.

“If you drive through Beatrice you’re wowed by the fire station,” Carnahan said. “It’s a new station. I went home that night, went on the website, it said they were hiring, and I applied.”

Kieper says she at first wasn’t sold on a small town department, but bought in after seeing the number of opportunities they present through an internship with the department.


“You get to do everything in your scope,” Kieper said. “If there’s an IV that needs to be done, it’s yours. If we have to drill an IO, it’s yours. Whatever skill that needs to be done, take it… And from the paramedic aspect, all the way to search and rescue and firefighting, you have a really wide scope.”

After graduating from the academy on the 18th, both Caranhan and Kieper plan to work towards more certificates, to better serve the Beatrice community.

“Beatrice really pushes you to go be educated, go be knowledgable,” Kieper said. “To push us for that education speaks volumes on the department.”