Female firefighters: past, present and future! Molly Williams was the first known female firefighter, who was a slave and and joined New York City’s Oceanus Engine Company #11 in about 1815. San Francisco heiress, Lillie Hitchcock Coit, became an honorary member of the Knickerbocker Engine Company #5 in 1859. Girton Ladies’ College in Great Britain maintained an all-women’s fire brigade from 1878 - 1932. World War II brought many women into the fire service. By the 1970s women were becoming care