Buffalo-born U.S. Army veteran Seenah Mischel has the job of her dreams, but it wasn’t until she was almost 30 that it found her. Courage has never been in short supply for Seenah, the first in her family to enter the armed services. In August of 2010, one day while driving to work in her new home, Erie, PA, she heard a radio announcement that the Erie Bureau of Fire was recruiting and decided to apply.

In the back of her mind, she’d been quietly nursing the dream since the sight of a Black female firefighter stirred something in her as a child. “I swear, never before in time had I thought I could do something like that,” Mischel said. “Seeing someone doing it was an eye-opener. From that point, I wanted to do it.”

With her Army conditioning firmly intact, Mischel breezed through her candidate testing and was hired that same year, becoming Erie’s first Black female firefighter. Her military training and easy camaraderie in the firehouse helped her skill up quickly, picking up tricks-of-the trade from her engine crew as well as a reputation as a real go-getter.

A Life of ‘Firsts’ 

In August of 2024, she returned from an overseas deployment with the U.S. Air Force Reserves to another first: she was offered the Lieutenant position she had tested for, becoming the city fire bureau’s first Black female officer.

Since then, Mischel has learned a little more about the now-retired firefighter in Buffalo who inspired her so long ago from her airfield firefighter unit in the U.S. Air Force Reserves. Though she’s never met her in person, Mischel still considers her to be her biggest inspiration.

“Sometimes I do see those looks I gave her when I was a kid,” she said. “I see it in the eyes of kids when they stop and look at me, never realizing that firefighters on the job are someone who looks like them.” For her part, Mischel is quick to encourage any kids who show an interest to consider joining up.