When she was 14 Imani Moore witnessed a traffic collision involving a motorcycle that changed the course of her life.
“There was all this chaos all around it, and I remember this lady pulling over, she was a firefighter/paramedic, and she kind of took control of the scene and was able to calm everyone down and she knew what to do,” Moore says. “And I remember feeling I never wanted to be lost in that chaos again, and to have that calmness like she did.”
Sixteen years later, Moore is a firefighter/paramedic for the Prescott Fire Department, juggling her 24-hour shifts spent as a guardian of the city and family life with her husband and 17-month-old son.
Moore grew up in Las Vegas and became an EMT after graduating from high school. She learned while working alongside firefighters that she wanted to be one as well.
“I really admired them because they were doing the EMS (emergency medical services) side, but they were also doing the extra stuff, fire, hazmat, rescues, so much more,” she says.
After two years with a department in Texas, Moore joined the PFD three years ago. Every call is a new challenge, one she says she’s ready to take on even under stressful circumstances.
“I really enjoy — I don’t know if enjoy is the right word, but I enjoy car accidents and trauma as well, just because the car accidents can be like a puzzle too, trying to figure out how to cut this car open, get this person out safely, in a timely manner, and so those can really make you think, and it’s a challenge, which is fun for me, to figure out how to accomplish the goal,” she says.
Being in a line of work that’s labeled “heroic” from time to time can be intimidating, but Moore says they all take it in stride:
“Before I became a firefighter I probably would have said ‘Yeah, firefighters are heroes,’ and I still believe that, but when I think about me in particular I think that I’m just a regular person. And I think we all feel that way, we’re just regular people doing our jobs. It doesn’t feel like we’re superheroes or anything, we’re just doing something that we love to do and are trained to do.”
