Ottawa camp introduces young women to firefighting
Posted Jul 17, 2022 06:00:00 PM.
A City of Ottawa summer camp is showing young women what a career in firefighting can look like.
Camp FFIT – Female Firefighters in Training – aims to introduce more women to firefighting, which has traditionally been a male dominated field.
Training officer Sue Jones told The Sam Laprade Show on Friday, July 15, that the week-long camp decks participants out in full firefighting equipment and lets them experience the daily tasks of firefighting.
“We’re not training anyone to be a firefighter,” Jones said. “It’s one week, so it is still a camp, but we are giving them the experience, so they get a really good taste of what being a firefighter is like.”
Jones explained that the training starts easy but soon has the young women putting out ground ladders, performing search and rescues, operating house lines and putting out a simulated car fire.
To help more women decide if the profession is for them, current firefighters and recent graduates will also talk to the campers about their careers.
Listen to the full interview with Sue Jones below:
