Alumni, Mobile »

There’s a moment that sometimes happens when Merissa Titus-Abate ’16 jumps off the firetruck in front of a bunch of kids.

“They say, ‘Oh my god, there’s a girl firefighter,’” she said. “That means a lot because it gives them the opportunity to see that there are other careers for females in the world. There are not just gender-specific roles when it comes to picking your career.”

Titus-Abate should know. She made history in 2022 when she became the first full-time female firefighter on the Rowley Fire Department. Now, she’s been promoted to lieutenant, and part of her career began at Northern Essex Community College.

Titus-Abate started her first responder career as an EMT and realized she wanted to become a firefighter while responding to a traumatic call. When she arrived, she found firefighters and paramedics already providing medical care on the scene.

“I saw…how central fire departments are in providing medical care before the ambulance arrives,” she said. “With firefighting, I could do other things like putting out fires, going to motor vehicle accidents, and assisting the community in other ways.”

She enrolled at NECC in 2014 for paramedic technology as a step toward becoming a firefighter, completing both the certificate program and earning an associate degree. That, “in turn also helped me continue to finish my bachelor’s degree” from Salem State University, she said.

The NECC program ticked a lot of boxes for Titus-Abate. Not only did it allow her to work full-time at Cataldo Ambulance Service, but it also gave her the opportunity to learn from student instructors who were actually working in the community at places like Lawrence General Hospital, Trinity Ambulance, and a number of local fire departments.

Titus-Abate said she valued “being able to learn from them and knowing that they worked in the communities that I wanted to work in.”

NECC also helped her forge connections with fellow students who later became her colleagues and peers in the field.

“In fire and EMS, the people that you learn with, you grow with, you become family. A lot of the people that I went to school with there are still my friends today. I still work alongside them, whether it’s in an EMS capacity or a fire service capacity,” she said.

Her firefighting career started to ramp up immediately after graduating from NECC when she was hired as a call firefighter for the town of Nahant, which also sent her to the call/volunteer fire academy through the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy’s Fire Training Council.

“Starting my career as a call firefighter in Nahant, working in the community, and building relationships with the people that I worked with at that department made me see that there was more to that career field,” she said.

Indeed, Titus-Abate’s firefighting career has included much more than responding to calls. She got her first full-time firefighting position in Ware, which gave her the opportunity to undertake additional training with the Massachusetts Department of Fire Services, including achieving her firefighter I/II and hazmat certifications.

Her career in Rowley has taken her even further into serving the broader community. She works with the Council on Aging, giving seniors medical emergency advice, such as educating them about fall risk behaviors and when it’s appropriate to call 911.

Titus-Abate also runs the department’s SAFE (Student Awareness of Fire Education) program, which brings her into schools to provide fire education and teach kids about things like smoke alarms, crawling low under smoke, and calling 911.

“I take a lot of pride in being a good, positive role model in the community,” she said. “When I go into Market Basket, I know everybody when we’re shopping. I go into the school [and] most of the kids know my name.”

Although Rowley had other female call firefighters and call lieutenants, being the first woman to hold that full-time role has been special for Titus-Abate. She’s also aware that people may doubt her strength and skills at the scene of an emergency until they see her in action.

“Then, when I step up and I do that task that they didn’t think I could do, it makes me feel good and hopefully proves to those surrounding me that I am as equal as everybody else,” she said.

She said she’s grateful to her parents for instilling within her a strong work ethic, as well as the fire chiefs who gave her a chance.

“Every department that I’ve joined had only a minimum of one or two female firefighters,” she said. “I just want to thank every single fire chief that’s ever given me an opportunity to highlight my actual skills and who I am as a person.”

This story was written by Alexandra Pecci ’02 for the fall edition of NECC’s alumni magazine, alumnecc. Read the full edition here.