Kelowna’s fire department has hired its first full-time female structural firefighter.
Firefighting is currently a male-dominated industry. Only about 30 of 500 candidates that apply for full-time firefighter roles are women, said Rick Euper, fire line safety fire inspector.
Rutland Senior Secondary student Carlie Dudych hopes to change that number.
“I always found it very interesting, I love helping people… it’s definitely something I want to do,” she said. “I love being hands on.”
Dudych is a junior on-call firefighter with the Joe Rich department and said it was exciting to hear the news of a new female firefighter in Kelowna.
She sharpened her skills at the annual firefighter boot camp, which took place Wednesday, April 18 at Station 1 on Enterprise Way. Around 75 Grade 9 to 12 students from across the district, a quarter of them female, were given the opportunity to carry a firehose, drag a dummy, scramble a ladder on one of the firetrucks and haul a hose up a three-storey building.
Fire prevention officer Gayanne Pacholzuk said there is a stigma around firefighting that may prevent women from applying for jobs in the field.
“I think the days are gone of being the fastest and the strongest person out there. There’s a lot more to firefighting rather than just the brawn anymore,” she said.
“I am the biggest advocate for women in the fire service and I tell these young girls ‘look, you just have to be fit’… it doesn’t mean I have to lift (people) over our shoulders like in the old days.”
She said it is exciting Kelowna is getting it’s first structural firefighter in the city, and there are two other full-time female firefighters at the airport hall.
Camps like Camp Ignite, a youth mentorship program for girls, is run by female firefighters in the Lower Mainland focuses on enticing young women into the firefighting service, she said.
In her more than 20 years in the firefighting service, part of which was served as a firefighter at Kelowna’s airport, she said she never face discrimination.
“We just don’t see it here, they’re my family, they’re my friends.”
“If they can pass the physical exams and the testing, they’re as good as anyone else,” Euper said.
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