These teen firefighters may save your life one day

Young women encouraged to suit up for the first time at Mississauga’s female-focused training camp.

TheStar.com
Aug. 9, 2016

In scalding, 30-degree heat, 18 rookie firefighters learned to pry passengers from a car using the Jaws of Life Tuesday. They broke windows, chopped off doors and got rid of the roof on a crushed Dodge Spirit. And they most definitely broke a sweat.

Camp Ignite, a week-long training camp co-ordinated by Mississauga’s first female firefighter and only female fire captain, Shelli Varela, is meant to spark interest in young women who might be inclined to pursue firefighting as a career.

Varela broke the glass ceiling in 1994 and now she’s passing the torch to 18 young women who want to battle blazes of their own.

Co-ordinating fitness drills and helping teach recruits about “hitting a hydrant, hose deployment and high angle rescue” are among camp activities. Varela said Wednesday’s agenda includes rappelling down a tower and drenching a flaming car.

“We don’t need more women or minorities or whatever. We need excellent firefighters. I think the misnomer though is the excellent firefighter couldn’t just be a woman,” Varela said. The camp “is meant to light that spark for the people to think, ‘Yeah, this is something I’d really love to do.’ ”

Many of the potential firefighters who suited up at the Garry W. Morden Centre said they consider themselves athletic, which lends well to the job.

Victoria Vansickle, 18, plays rugby, field hockey and ice hockey and her uncle Bob Hall is one of the group’s training officers. After a Grade 9 trip to the fire hall with him for Take Your Kid to Work Day, she was hooked.

“It’s just the adrenalin and helping people. I’ve always had an interest in that – being able to give back. It’s really a rewarding career,” Vansickle said.

As for the outfit, “it’s kind of like wearing a big sleeping bag. You’re always hot, no matter the weather. I feel like in the winter you’d be well insulated,” she said with a laugh.

Emma Jones, 15, grinned as she broke a rear window on the Dodge with help from a metal spring. Then she watched as her new friends tried their luck – only two pairs of the girls knew each other before Monday – and then captured the whole shebang on Snapchat.

She said she’ll save that post because it’s not every day a teen gets permission to demolish a car.

Mississauga fire Chief Tim Beckett said the idea for the program came from similar female-focused camps in Ottawa and London, Ont.

Beckett said he has a harder time recruiting qualified women to be firefighters than he does men. Women make up about three per cent of Mississauga’s fire crews now, he said, which isn’t anywhere near the diversity he’d like to see.

“We want the young women out there to realize that firefighting is a viable career option for them to consider,” Beckett said. “It’s not a man’s job. You have as much of an opportunity of being a firefighter as that man over there.”

At 5 feet 1 inch, Rachel Harvey said her parents were worried she’d be too small to work in the industry. The 16-year-old said she’s wanted to be a firefighter since she was 3 and now feels the dream is within reach.

“When we were watching the (training) video on the first day, I almost started crying because I want to do this so bad,” Harvey said. “Last year at this time, I did not think I would be able to take apart a fire hydrant and I did that like, 20 minutes ago.”

For Faith Dunford, 17, her feelings about Camp Ignite can be summed up in four simple words: “I feel so bad-ass.”