FEMALE FIREFIGHTER

Springfield’s first female firefighter retires

By Valerie Lough
Springfield News-Sun
Sept. 8, 2010

 SPRINGFIELD — The first time Diane Arbogast saw a fire engine, it was the day she reported for training at a new job — as a firefighter.

And, all those doo dads on the engine’s pump panel looked pretty intimidating.

“You look at something like that the first time and go ... ‘Ok,’ ” said Arbogast. Twenty-five years later, Arbogast, the first female firefighter at the Springfield Fire Division, retired Wednesday, Sept. 8.

But, as a child, putting out fires wasn’t her dream. She thought she might be a nurse

“I’m not a nurse, but I do take care of people,” she said. Arbogast found her way to the Springfield Fire Division in search of a better job with good benefits.

In other attempts to get a solid job in 1985, some prospective employers told Arbogast flat-out that they preferred to hire a man for the job.

But when she joined the fire division that same year, the climate was much more welcoming, she said. “All the guys were always just super,” she said.

Fellow firefighter John Sells said Arbogast’s nurturing instinct made her a natural in the job. “I think a lot of people will describe her as motherly,” said Sells. “I’ve never seen her get mad.”

Arbogast plans to continue with her second job in the emergency room at Springfield Medical Center and enjoying her eight grandchildren and great grandchild.

 Her voice cracked as she spoke of what she would miss the most about her job — the people she worked with.

“It’s like a big family ... they’ve become my second family,” she said.

COUNTRY CLUB - 1922

Fire destroyed the Springfield Country Club on June 14, 1922.

WINTER'S FIRE - 1892

On April 12, 1892, fire gutted Winter's Art Lithographing Co. in Springfield, Ohio - destroying materials printed for the Chicago World's Fair of 1893, according to the next day's The New York Times.

"Before the Fire Department could arrive the entire three stories were enveloped in flames," the Times reported. "The company had contracted for all the World's Fair lithographing, and part of the orginial stones for the World's Fair work were destroyed." 

The fire orginated in a room of oils and inks, "supposedly by spontaneous combustion," and "the heavy machinery was ruined by dropping to the basement," the newspaper reported. It said "the building is a total wreck."

WOODLAWN HALL - 1928

On May 15, 1928, fire swept the Woodlawn Hall womens' dormitory at Wittenberg College, killing Hilda Sipes, 20, of Shelby, Ohio, according to a dispatch from the Associated Press.

Other women were injured jumping from windows early that Tuesday morning, the campus newspaper, The Torch, reported two days later.

Over the years, the tragedy contributed to ghost stories about Woodlawn Hall.

Ms. Sipes died in a lavatory across from her room, No. 11.

Firefighters located her body, clad in a nightgown, in a bathroom "stretched flat on the floor between the bathtub and the wall," said Fire Captain Ed Garrity of the Central Engine House, quoted by the Springfield Daily News.

The fire was discovered by Lilly Myers, house mother for the 20 residents, at about 2 a.m., according to The Torch.

The Associated Press identified three of the injured students as Alice Olde of Detroit, Helen McClain of Troy, Ohio, and Marie Schneider of Indianapolis.

The AP also reported: "More of the girls might have been trapped in bed had not most of them remained awake longer than usual to listen to a midnight serenade of a campus fraternity."

The AP dispatch was published in the May 16, 1928 edition of the Hartford Courant newspaper of Hartford, Connecticut. The headline of the story on page 6 of the newspaper read: "Co-Ed Killed in Dormitory Fire in Ohio."

The AP reporter identified the dormitory as "Woodland Hall."

FIREMEN'S PICNIC

Photos: Courtesy of family of Harry Huffman

Springfield, Ohio, firefighters at a picnic and outside a firehouse. Harry Huffman is seated at right in the firehouse photo, courtesy of the Huffman family.