In January 2026, Kelsey Demanett was promoted to captain in the Concordia Fire Department (CFD).
She is the first female fire captain in the history of the CFD.
Born and raised in Concordia, Demanett graduated from Concordia High School in 2003. Even then, she still had no thoughts of being a firefighter. "Oh no," she said with a laugh. "I thought I'd be jamming on my guitar in a band before I ever thought I'd be doing something like this."
Demanett began her career at City Hall in the office, doing customer service and licensing. "At the time, the Chief (Eric Voss) was needing more applicants for his EMT class," she said. "He had talked to everybody who worked up front, and the three of us were willing to do the class. I thought, why not? Let's see what happens. It really surprised me. I ended up falling in love with it. I really enjoyed EMS, and the fire part, and I just kept going. I've always enjoyed helping people."
Demanett has now been with the CFD for almost 10 years.
Being a firefighter means a work schedule different from most others. "We have what's called a Kelly Schedule," Demanett said. "I'll have 24 (hours) on and 24 off. I'll repeat that three times, and then I'll have four days off."
Demanett said she enjoys the flexibility of her work schedule. "At first it was a little difficult, but now my family is used to it. It's definitely not for everybody, and it might have been different if my children were younger. If I had gotten into this when they were really little that would have been challenging. But now we can kind of plan things around my schedule, and I have the opportunity to be there for my kids at a time or on a day when other parents might be at work. But there are some sacrifices you have to make. For instance, I'll be on shift this Christmas, so we'll have our Christmas on a different day. My family understands that. But when I'm off schedule, we get to spend a lot of quality time together. We have activities that we all enjoy together, like being outdoors and hiking. We like to travel around, and sometimes my schedule makes that a little easier."
Leadership in any occupation often means more administrative duties, and that holds true for a fire department. "Aside from my emergency calls, I also do inventory, which is constantly updated; I have FRA (Firefighters Relief Association), I'm the treasurer of that. I do fire reports. I'm also a paramedic - that's the highest level other than a critical care medic for us, so if anyone really needs a lot of help, I'm one of the people they go to for that. And I'm the acting officer on a fire ground until the Chief gets there."
Demanette said that about 10-15% of her call-outs are for fires. The rest are EMS. She briefly described what a call-out is like for her for fire and EMS calls: "When first arriving on the scene of a call, we want to make sure the scene is safe. Has PD (the police department) arrived? For a fire, we want to quickly assess what structures are involved, what is overhead, and what might be under our feet. Then we do a whole 360 of the structure and start taking action. All of this happens in just a few minutes.
"For an EMS call, we immediately want to know what the goal is for this patient; what do they need. Depending on the vitals that they have, we try to find the best way to meet those goals.
Demanett said that her entire career in CFD has been based on a single goal: helping people. "It all starts there. Helping people is why I do this. Every day is different. We're always seeing new things, unique things."
As noted earlier, Demanett is the first female fire captain in the history of the CFD. But she doesn't spend a lot of time dwelling on it. "I don't really think about it that much. I'm humbled to be in this position, and it's exciting to be the first female. Hopefully that opens the way for more."
Being a female in this type of job does present some challenges. "I am physically a very strong person, but I also recognize that I am not always the most physically strong person of everyone around me, and I do need help with some things from time to time. Not like pulling hose or anything like that. I can do all of that kind of physical stuff. But lifting some of our larger patients, there has to be more than just me doing that. But that goes for all of us here. It is a very demanding job physically. I have really small hands, so one of the things I had to work on when I first started here was my grip strength. I work out constantly."
One of the challenges for any first responder is dealing with a crisis and its aftermath, mentally. "It's not something you really think about when it's happening, because you are focused on the goals, the needs of your patient. But at some point later you need to go back and revisit that. Nobody calls 911 on their best day. We often see people on their worst day. Their house has burned down, or they're very sick, or they've watched a loved one go through something very traumatic. It's our job to care for people at the worst of time for them and show them as much love as we can at that moment. So you have to have that foundation to go back to, to keep you centered, to remember your 'why'. We obviously can't react emotionally in that moment; we are there to help people and perhaps even save their life. But then you have to take the time to go back and unpack (those emotions) later."
Demanett looks forward to serving her communities for a long time. "As the first female fire captain for Concordia, I am humbled and I am also excited to serve my communities the best I can. I want to continue the wonderful care that we provide."
