Words by Esther Marr
Photography by Natalie Morris

Unfulfilled in her profession as a registered nurse, Amelia Papapetropoulos, who lives close to where billions of barrels of oil and gas are churned out yearly, began taking note of the booming oil and gas industry in her small hometown of Waynesburg, Pa. She got her foot in the door through an unconventional route: launching an on-site catering company at the oil and gas rigs.

“I did both nursing and catering for about a year and it allowed me to keep the security of having a salary, while meeting people and exploring oil and gas,” Amelia said. Eventually she was offered a full time sales position. “Women are filling more and more roles in this industry (currently around 19%),” Amelia said. “Although traditionally it’s an old boys’ club, that stereotype is definitely changing as more women work on-site.”

The closer one is working to the site, the stricter the requirements. And after too many years of donning men’s baggy jumpsuits in order to meet protective wear requirements, Amelia’s entrepreneurial nature finally kicked in. The petite, energetic brunette turned dream into reality a year and a half ago, founding her third home-based business, Fire Within: a fire-resistant clothing company for women working in oil and gas.

“We are required to wear certain clothing on location because it’s dangerous; there could be combustion with the live drilling in the wells. The fire-resistant clothes the industry provides today by big-name brands indicate they’re for women, but they’re not,” she said. “They’re just a smaller version of the men’s patterns.”

Amelia took an idea for a more fitted pink fire-resistant coverall to the local art institute. They connected her with a few students, including Christina Knieriem. “We put our ideas on paper and turned them into an actual company.”

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