‘It’s a job like no other’: Collingwood’s only female firefighter aims to inspire next generation

Ana Mann doing outreach to local groups in hopes of getting girls interested in firefighting

simcoe.com
John Edwards
March 21, 2022

While the job of a firefighter has traditionally been a position held by men, the lone female on the Collingwood department is working to change that.

Ana Mann has been a paid, on-call firefighter for just over a year, and she also holds the same role in Clearview Township.

A CrossFit coach by day, Mann decided to seek a career in the fire services after meeting a firefighter at a local gym.

“He was fit, he was kind and supportive, and he shared a lot of stories,” she said.

She completed several courses online but had to do a boot camp in Texas.

“I was quite nervous, so I reached out to Collingwood Fire Department,” she said.

"Deputy Chief Dan Thurman invited me to visit their hall, and the guys were great ...That’s my first interaction with the Collingwood fire department; they helped me with my nerves going to boot camp.”

After completing her courses for seven months, she applied to be a volunteer.

“The crew in Collingwood, they’re amazing,” said the mother of two. “I never feel I am treated differently.”

Mann is also doing outreach for the department. She recently did a session with a group of young girls in the Brownies program about the fire department.

“I had a whole bunch of girls; they heard my story,” she said. “Firefighting, an amazing job. It’s a job like no other, and I would like girls to know they can do it as well.”

Thurman said the department had held classes for local high school students in hopes of getting young women interested in the fire services. When the session first started, they asked the 25 girls if they any had interest in firefighting. By the end of the session, when the same was asked, a number of hands went up, and several are now pursuing firefighter in post-secondary education.

Thurman said they plan to hold a similar session in the spring.

“I want her (Mann) and our training officer to lead it,” he said. “We want to be more diversified.”

Deryn Rizzi is the fire chief with the City of Mississauga and is recognized as the first woman to lead a city fire department when she was chief in Vaughan.

Rizzi has made an effort to try and improve diversity in fire services in North America when she served as the chair of the International Association of Fire Chief Human Relations Committee.

Rizzi is also a PhD candidate at York University, researching equity, diversity, and inclusion.

She now sits on the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs' diversity, equity, and inclusion committee.

“Over my career, I have seen more women getting involved,” she said.

However, Rizzi said the process is slow. When she was in Vaughan, the department talked to 600 high school students, and only 16 girls signed up for a firefighter camp.

“The goal was to inform them of firefighting being a viable career option, and it was a time where we were trying to encourage young women to sign up for our firefighting camps,” she said.

However, in Clearview Township, more women are getting involved.

In a first for the department, eight out of 12 applicants who signed on to be on-call paid-duty firefighters were female.