Fire Girl

by Jan Mendoza

NOTE FROM Thank you so much for considering my book Fire Girl. I want to let you know that 100% of all of my royalties go to the Wildland Fire Fighter Foundation – This cause financially helps the families of wildland firefighters who die in the line of duty. I was one of the first few female firefighters to work for the California Department of Forestry. The year was 1978 and there were only 26 of us girls working for CDF in the entire state that year. We were still treading on new territory. A female had never stepped foot to work at my assigned Northern California CDF station in its 50 year history!It was definitely a man's world and some weren't happy when an 18 year old girl that stood 5'2" and weighed 95 pounds showed up for duty.From the mundane everyday station work to battling raging forest fires with near death experiences, I tell you my story how I remember it those many years ago with humor and honesty! Yeah, I have a “couple good stories” in there! If you are a firefighter past, present or future, thank you for your invaluable service! If you are a family member of a firefighter, thank you for your support! To see better quality and higher resolution full color photos that appear in the book, go to www.wildlandfirewomen.com There are bonus photos both past and present as well as video!

138 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2012

About the author

At 18, Jan became one of the first female wildland fire fighters for the California Department of Forestry.

She then spent the next 15 years in the music business traveling throughout the United States singing professionally on stage in front of the masses and even performed for the Godfather of Soul Mr. James Brown at his annual star studded Grammy celebration in Hollywood.


After someone told her that she had a great "telephone voice" she spent the next 20 years as a radio personality, news reporter and airborne traffic reporter.

While working in radio, Jan received her degree and certification in Paralegal Studies and partnered "Legal Alternatives", a very busy independent paralegal business in Sacramento that handled thousands of family law cases.

In between radio jobs, Jan obtained a position as a top executive sales rep for an energy company landing multi-million dollar deals with Fortune 500 companies such as 3M, Pillsbury, Land-o-Lakes and Phillip Morris. This is where she really learned the craft of making deals!

Jan and has been the media spokesperson and public relations specialist for five California state agencies until she retired from state service in 2014.

Jan writes and records music, films her own music videos and has recently released a documentary called Heartland. She is also a retired professional rodeo trick rider!

Jan teaches aspiring authors and business owners how to promote their businesses and themselves.
www.janmendoza.com

Reviews

[Rossy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was an interesting book and I recommended to the students who love to read about friendship.

[John Willems · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fire Girl is a fun read that transports you to a California Department of Forestry fire station in northern California in 1978. The book is an autobiography of a college student just out of her freshman year and happens to be one of the first women to join CDF as a firefighter. The characters, the setting, and fire stories in the book keep your attention and are well written. The author emphasizes that being the only woman in her station was difficult and highlights some of her challenges in a male dominated profession, but the topic isn’t overplayed. One flaw of the book is the pictures. Why even have them if they are such poor reproductions? Others might say that Ms. Mendoza was only a firefighter for one season, but that is what is so great about this book - it is a nicely composed snapshot of one woman’s summer, in the male run CDF, fighting fires in the woods.

[Martha Foster · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a delight! This book is like sitting beside your feisty grandma and hearing her fun stories of back when she was an equally strong and gutsy young lady and got into amazing and amusing adventures. And so well told, you can picture every detail!

[Janie R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intense,action-filled story about firefighting and one of the first female firefighters for the California Dept. of Forestry. Very interesting and informative about wildland fires,etc. and a great account of Jan's experiences as a firefighter.