Fire Fighter, Annapolis City Fire Department

For Anna Morrow (SJS ’09), a career in fire fighting just “fell into her lap.” 

Anna attended Sewanee: The University of the South where she majored in biology, with plans to later attend medical school or pursue physical therapy. She decided to take an EMT class at Anne Arundel Community College for fun and to gain experience in the medical field.  To become certified as an EMT, she had to do ride alongs in an ambulance with the local fire station. She enjoyed it so much, she decided to take a fire certification class as well. It was at that point she decided on a career as a fire fighter, and for the past three years she has worked as a fire fighter and EMT for the Annapolis City Fire Department.

“I can’t imagine doing anything else now, but if you asked me five or six years ago, it’s not something that I thought I’d be doing at all,” Anna said. 

Even though she had fire and EMT certifications as a volunteer, once hired by Annapolis as a career fire fighter, she had to attend the Anne Arundel County Fire Department Training Academy to gain additional experience and knowledge. Anna was one of six women in her academy’s graduating class of about 50.  She said she wasn't treated any differently as a female fire fighter once she proved she could pull her weight when responding to calls. 

“You kind of have to earn it; but that’s not just for females, that’s for any new recruits,” she said. “I just needed to prove myself to them, so they knew they could trust me on a call, that I’m stronger than I look, and that I can do the job when it comes down to it.”

Anna said she and her team are taking extra precautions to stay safe during the current pandemic, such as wearing masks and PPE.

“My first two to three years I never wore a mask or a gown on an EMS call, and maybe just eye protection on certain calls, but now we’re wearing it on every call just to be cautious,” she said. 
Anna said when the pandemic started their EMS call volume dropped significantly because people were too afraid to expose themselves by going to the hospital.

“We were running a lot fewer calls and they tended to be higher priority calls because the people that were calling were actually very sick and if they were going to the hospital, they probably really needed to be going,” she said.

As restrictions and fears have eased in the last few weeks, the call volume has started to go back up as they respond to lower priority calls.

Anna said it is the rewarding moments that keep her going and remind her why she loves her job. 

“On the fire side, you’ll go to a fire and be able to save half the house, for example, and that’s what you remember,” she said. “Those are the positives that you take away; that you did help someone and at the end of the day, they’re thankful for what you did.”

On the EMS side, she recalls a serious car accident where a young driver was ejected and had to be flown to the hospital. They later found out that he survived and has almost made a full recovery. 

“It’s those kind of calls where the family reaches out to us after that are really rewarding because he’s now hopefully going to live a long, happy life because we were able to intervene and get him care very quickly,” Anna said.

While at Sewanee, Anna played field hockey and lacrosse, two sports she also played at Saint James. It is her coaches from SJS that stick out as being influential. 

“I equate a lot of what we do in the fire department with teamwork and a lot of that comes from my sports past,” she said.

Outside of work, Anna plays ice hockey for the Annapolis Fire team as well as the Annapolis Osprey, a team in the Mid-Atlantic Women’s Hockey League. Prior to the pandemic, her team had qualified to go to the national tournament in Minneapolis, which was eventually cancelled. 

Anna also enjoys spending time with her two dogs, Trapper and Bailey, and her fiancé, Greg.  The two plan to wed in the Saint James Chapel in October.