Karin Halstead has a note card tacked on the wall above her desk at Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire & Rescue Company’s (SHVFR) main station that shows a female firefighter in full turnout gear, one eyebrow raised, staring directly at the viewer. A line of hose is resting on her right shoulder. The hose trails behind her, connected to a nearby hydrant. Along the bottom of the card are the words Girls Can’t What?

A Sandy Hook native, Halstead joined the fire service in November 1997. She immediately began responding to calls, often riding in the apparatus alongside her father, the longtime chief of SHVFR.

Halstead joined Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps the following year and quickly became a well-respected EMT. She has remained a steady and important part of Sandy Hook VFR’s operations, where she currently serves as EMS captain and treasurer. She previously served as secretary and assistant treasurer.

Last weekend Halstead became the first woman elected president of the Connecticut State Firefighters Association. She was elected on September 19 after representatives from dozens of fire departments gathered for the CSFA’s annual convention in Waterbury.

She previously served as CSFA first vice president for the organization founded over 140 years ago to advocate for the fire service.

Breaking the glass ceiling for this position in Connecticut was not a big factor for Halstead, who says her job for the next 12 months is bigger than gender.

“That isn’t important to me,” Halstead said September 23, still catching her breath following the weekend events. Her social media feeds and cell phone have been blowing up with texts and notes of congratulations from across the state and well beyond.

“I’m just trying to do a job to better the fire service,” she said. “I don’t think it makes a difference if you’re male or female. It’s about improving the firefighter service through health and wellness including cancer prevention, and firefighter safety.”

Firefighter occupational cancer is the leading cause of line of duty deaths in the fire service. American Cancer Society reported in July 2025 that firefighters are at an increased risk of mortality from skin, kidney, and other types of cancer. That research followed a 2022 review by the International Agency for Research on Cancer that found sufficient evidence that occupation as a firefighter causes mesothelioma and bladder cancer.

Further, The Firefighter Cancer Support Network says firefighters have a nine percent higher risk of being diagnosed with cancer and a 14% higher risk of dying from cancer than the general US population.

Those will be the numbers Halstead keeps in mind while juggling the administrative duties tied to the position of CSFA president for the next 12 months. She and her fellow board members represent approximately 22,000 volunteer and 4,400 career firefighters across the state.

In addition to serving as its current president, Halstead will continue to help lead CSFA’s Hall of Fame Committee, which honors first responders for their career contributions and leadership; serve on its CSFA Memorial Committee; and serve as vice president of its CT Irregulars Association, a position she stepped into in 2022 after the passing of her father.

Bill Halstead became the first Newtown firefighter to lead CSFA when he served as its president in 2020.

Karin Halstead's first public appearance as CSFA president will be during the 2026 Firefighters Memorial Service. She will be among those speaking during the 24th annual event at Connecticut Fire Academy on September 27.

“We will honor the firefighters who have lost their lives in the line of duty,” she told The Newtown Bee this week. The names of ten career and volunteer firefighters who have made the ultimate sacrifice will be formally unveiled during a ceremony early Sunday afternoon.

Halstead will offer the welcome remarks and assist in the presentation of plaques to the families of those who have lost firefighters, she said.

As in previous years, the service at the permanent memorial installed at Connecticut Fire Academy will honor those lost during the past 12 months as well as those whose deaths have been deemed line of duty deaths, such as Heidi Vasseur Vaughan. The UConn FD Firefighter succumbed to breast cancer in 2019; hers is among the names being unveiled this year, however.

Sandy Hook And Beyond

Karin Halstead’s name regularly appears in the monthly lists of top ten responders for Sandy Hook VFR. In 2008 she was named Sandy Hook VFR Firefighter of the Year, and in 2023 she was elected a Life Member of the company.

Halstead helped develop Sandy Hook’s Junior Corps program, which she and former member Dave De la Vega introduced in spring 2007. That program, she said this week, is meant to instill the love of firefighting in young adults ages 14-16. It allows the potential firefighters to serve their community and begin learning about “the camaraderie that comes with joining a fire company,” Halstead said.

Among the current members of Sandy Hook’s Junior Corps is Charlie Jeltema.

“I love watching my nephew find the same love of being at the firehouse as I did as a kid,” Halstead also shared. “I hope our Juniors continue to serve their community as they get older.”

Her multi-tasking skills and talent for logistics are impressive. She is often behind special in-house events, and leads or assists multiple Sandy Hook VFR committees.

Halstead’s service to her community goes beyond her roles as a Sandy Hook VFR line and administrative officer. She was responsible for creating and continuing the annual townwide Fill the Fire Truck event, a food drive for FAITH Food Pantry that has been presented the Saturday before Thanksgiving every year since 2002.

(The 24th Annual Fill the Fire Truck will return to Queen Street Shopping Center and Sand Hill Plaza on Saturday, November 21, from 9 am-noon.)

Halstead joined Fairfield County Fire Chiefs Emergency Plan in 2011, taking the first steps that year to extend her fire service beyond Sandy Hook.

Last October she was named that group’s 2025 Bill Halstead Firefighter of the Year. This past May she became that group’s president, also breaking the glass ceiling there.

In making the announcement, FCFC called her “a true inspiration for women in the fire service, showing what it truly means to be dedicated, and have leadership qualities.”

As mentioned earlier, Halstead’s term as president for Connecticut State Fire Association will continue for one year. Hers will conclude once elections have been conducted during the 2027 CSFA Convention, which Sandy Hook will host the weekend of September 17-19.

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Managing Editor Shannon Hicks can be reached at shannon@thebee.com.