Raising awareness

Inside San Marcos Fire Station #5 hangs Kelly Millican’s painting. 

She painted it in October for the Kerr Art and Cultural Center’s “Think Pink” event in Kerrville. The only requirement was that the painting had to feature pink. Millican, who is an EMS education coordinator and licensed paramedic for Travis County Emergency Services District 1, wanted to highlight firefighters in her art. 

She chose to bring up a topic seldom discussed in the fire services — breast cancer in female firefighters. Millican painted six firefighters she’d met during her time in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and Travis County ESD 1. The six female firefighters surround breast cancer survivor Canda Martin, who Millican met in Dallas. 

“I came up with this concept of these firefighter women that I have worked with over the years and the center is a breast cancer survivor (Martin),” Millican said. “She retired from the Dallas Fire Department about 5 years ago. I started doing some research about breast cancer in female firefighters and there’s a lot of information out there and demographics about male firefighters and cancer. But there’s not a whole lot about females because there’s not a lot of females in the fire service.”

According to a study conducted by the San Francisco Fire Department, which has the most female firefighters than any other in the country at approximately 16 percent, 15 percent of female firefighters between 40 and 50 years old have been diagnosed with breast cancer — six times the national average.

“Most of the stuff that’s out there (on firefighter related cancer) has been on men,” San Marcos Fire Chief Les Stephens said. “So that was one of the things I thought was unique about this was it was highlighting a thing that’s equally — the statistics — are equally as skewed for female firefighters as they are male firefighters but that doesn’t get much of the attention.” 

Millican chose to display her painting at the San Marcos fire station because of her friendship with Stephens. She trained him as an EMT and paramedic in the early 1990s during Stephens’ time at the Garland Fire Department. 

“We’ve had a lot of people come through and stop and check it out and ask questions,” Stephens said. “So, it’s neat that (Millican) let us display it here.” 

Millican said the reaction to the painting has been positive. 

“A lot of females were very appreciative of the work and they forwarded it to other female firefighters,” Millican said. “So, it’s made the rounds on Facebook. The first week that I put it on there, I think it was like 2,000 hits just from women firefighters.” 

Millican’s painting will remain at Fire Station #5 through early February. Stephens said those wanting to see Millican’s art are welcomed to do so. 

From San Marcos, the painting will go to the Dallas Fire Museum. Millican hopes it travels even further than Dallas. 

“(The idea is) to keep moving it from department to department to bring awareness to female breast cancer awareness,” Millican said. 

“It won’t be hard to find places to display it,” Stephens said. “I think there will be plenty of people that will take an interest.”