Camden’s First Female Fire Captain Hangs Up Her Gear After 22 Years

Lydia Chapman had never imagined becoming a firefighter – much less making history as one – in her native Camden. 

Twenty-two years ago, Chapman, now 55, was raising four little girls under the age of 10 with husband Ed Chapman, and working as a part-time librarian. 

On May 28, as she was about to retire from the Camden Fire Department in front of a crowd of cheering coworkers at Engine 11 in the Cramer Hill neighborhood, she said as much.

“I never in my wildest dreams expected myself to go from a little girl growing up at 4th and Royden to join the fire department and get into the rank of first female captain,” she told her supporters. “That’s also a true testament to how you guys brought me up, what you guys taught me.”

It was her husband, then a Delaware River Port Authority police officer, who found out the department was hiring women and urged her to apply—at the time, he said, because he wanted for her “a career where she could retire at an early age.”

When she said no, Ed Chapman filled out an application for her in secret and when she got a letter of acceptance, she reluctantly showed up at the academy. Soon, her husband became her “drill sergeant” and led her through the training, which included sprinting up a six-story building wearing 80 pounds so she would feel light during the test. Once she passed, she said, “I was on my journey.”  At that point, said her husband, Lydia’s colleagues became “her second family.”

“She became a natural,” he said, “and the first female captain. She kicked ass and took names.”

When she became a firefighter, she became one of only four females to do so; Renee Muhammad and Jennifer Barrientos had preceded her by months; Chapman followed, along with Shonda Harris. The three other women attended the celebration, with Barrientos — now Barrientos-Morris — having made history herself by becoming the first female Assistant Chief Fire Marshal in the department two years ago.  A younger female firefighter in the city, Ayshia Williams, died of cervical cancer this year.

Camden Fire Battalion Chief Gilberto Colon, himself a 30-year veteran in the department, remembers a period of adjustment to the women for some of the male firefighters.

“I don’t think it was hard for the younger people to accept her,” he said, “but the older guys had a harder time…In this field where there’s not many women, she’s represented herself well.”

Chapman, say her coworkers, also brought a different kind of leadership to the job. Retired Camden firefighter Ciri Castro, Jr., called it “a motherly approach.”

Chapman, said Castro, “addressed issues, made us sit down at the table and talk…It created a bigger bond for us. We would hang out on off-days, and do dinners at work. She helped change the culture.”

A lengthy statement written by Camden Fire Chief Jesse Flax, Camden Fire Battalion Chief Samuel Munoz and firefighter Greg Guzman that was read over a loudspeaker acknowledged as much.

“Anyone who worked for Captain Chapman,” it said, “quickly learned there were two versions of Lydia. Every morning, crews waited to find out if they were getting ‘Mother Lydia’ or ‘Captain Chapman.’  Mother Lydia checked on your family, made sure you were okay mentally, listened patiently to problems, and somehow managed to interpret a certain person’s special language system that nobody else fully understood for years.”

On the other hand, with Captain Chapman, the statement continued, “your reports were done correctly, your training squared away, and your work ethic is 100 percent at all times. Somehow, both versions existed in the same person, and somehow, both made you better.”

The announcement, which praised Chapman as “loyal, respectful, and fiercely protective of those under her command” and “one of the finest firefighters to ever answer the bells in the city of Camden” also expressed appreciation for the support she received from family members and thanked Chapman, saying that “Camden runs safer because you were here.”

Chapman  was joined at the celebration by her husband, three of her four daughters — one of whom, Kewanee Chapman, is a sergeant with the Camden County Sheriff’s office — and a host of other relatives, including two granddaughters.  Daughter Alycia Patterson recalled that “as a kid, it was very cool” to have a mother fighting fires.

Muhammad, who plans to retire later this year, fought back tears as she watched Chapman leave the department.

“We always had this tight bond,” she said of her female coworkers, “because we always had to improve ourselves; they didn’t know how to handle us. I don’t want to cry any more because it’s a lot to take in! We are a family.”

Chapman is aware that by the end of this year, there will only be two women firefighters left in Camden, a situation she hopes will change. She said the department used to recruit more actively every three years when the application process is open and could consider ramping up those efforts, perhaps going into the schools.

As Chapman — who was also lauded as a dedicated union representative at a local and state level — received a framed certificate from the International Association of Firefighters, the theme of family shone brightly through the proceedings.

Unlike Barriento-Morris, Chapman chose not to seek an administrative post, but to stay “on the line” fighting fires. She told her assembled colleagues: “I’m going to miss every single one of you…you guys built me up from when I came in not knowing nothing…and I do not ever regret staying on the line.”