Lakeview elects first female fire chief

Heather Senti has made history again when she became Nassau County's and Lakeview's first female fire chief last week.

Senti, 27, was elected Thursday to the top leadership spot of the Lakeview Volunteer Fire Department. She moves up from the assistant chief position that she was voted into in April 2011.

She ran unopposed in the 65-member department that covers a 1.4-square-mile area in the Town of Hempstead. One of two female firefighters in the department, she takes office as chief Tuesday, she said.

Until Senti's election last year, Nassau County fire departments had remained men-only at the top. Suffolk County fire departments have had female chiefs and assistant chiefs.

For Senti, being part of the volunteer fire department is a family legacy. She said her election to chief comes 50 years after her grandfather, Frederick Senti, and 30 years after her father, Frederick Senti Jr., were voted into the same position. Her brother, Frederick Senti III, 25, was elected Thursday as captain, 55 years after their grandfather held that post.

"It's funny how history keeps repeating itself," Heather Senti, a lifelong Lakeview resident, said Friday. "It is quite an honor to keep up the family tradition."

Senti finds the time to volunteer between working a full-time job as a recovery officer at the Nassau County Office of Emergency Management and completing a master's degree in emergency management at Adelphi University. She became a volunteer when she was 19.

Her plans as chief are to expand training, buy new equipment and provide more seminars, she said.