Black women firefighters in Aurora discuss unbreakable bond
It's a bond that has truly been tested by fire.
"No words can describe the bond," Lt. Kathleen Hancock said. "I'm super thankful for them."
Hancock, Danielle Allen and Brooke Simms are the only Black women working at Aurora Fire Rescue.
Their journey together came through different routes.
Hancock, a native of Pueblo, lived in Tuscon, Arizona, where she was a physical therapist and athletic trainer.
But her life would change after her mom died from a brain aneurysm.
"After my mother died unexpectedly, was treating a couple of chiefs and other officers at the physical therapy unit. And they started talking to me, 'hey, come out and we need people like you to come out, work out with us, we really need women like you. And I thought to myself, 'why?'" Hancock said.
She decided to pursue that question mark. She tried out for the fire department and passed it on the first try.
Serving in Tuscon for 10 years before coming back to Colorado in 2012, she became the first Black woman on Aurora Fire Rescue's team.
"The whole way through it, I knew I had my mom up above me and that was huge for me in making her proud," she said.
Allen also wanted to make her family proud.
Her uncle was a firefighter and was at ground zero during 9/11.
The Manhattan native knew in second grade that she wanted to live a life of service.
"I got to witness so many firefighters serving and saving lives [and] what that really meant to those families," Allen said. "So, for me, I was like, 'what better thing is there to do?'"
It took a while for Simms to get accepted into the fire service.
She and her husband applied to be in the fire service in Austin, Texas and didn't get in at first.
She kept applying and while planning to move back to Colorado, she received a message from the Aurora Fire Department saying that she was moving forward in the process.
"It was just confirmation that coming here and being with Aurora Fire was the place that I needed to be," Simms said.
Their bond has made them more than friends -- but family.
And they're looking forward to other Black women joining them in service.
"They're my sisters. They're my sisters that were placed in my life long before I knew it," Hancock said. "I'm proud and I will be there for them and I'll be there for all the rest that want to come through."
Hancock was just promoted to the rank of lieutenant on Feb. 21.
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