Tuesday, Jun. 10, 2008

Extinguishing stereotypes

Local fire departments fight traditional gender roles

Olathe firefighter Beth Fox has wanted to be a firefighter since she was 4.

Since she walked around her parents’ house in a firefighter’s helmet. Since she would run outside and wave to the fire truck as it passed by her Overland Park home. It’s really the only thing the 23-year-old ever wanted to do.

“From day one, once I learned what firefighting was, I knew it’s something I wanted to do,” Fox said. “I went ahead, and I did it. I’ve loved it ever since. I don’t regret anything.”

Not all women share Fox’s enthusiasm for a career that continues to be a boys club, but some want that trend to change.

The Overland Park Fire Department is hosting a camp this week to educate young women ages 14 to 19 about careers in fire and emergency services. Camp Inferno is an overnight camp where “cadets” learn about a career they may not have considered, said Overland Park Capt. Julie Harper, who modeled the camp after a similar one on the West Coast.

The girls participate in team-building and problem-solving exercises. They’ll receive CPR and self-defense instruction and learn résumé and interview skills. Activities include wearing full protective gear and breathing apparatuses to fight live fires, repelling from a 40-foot structure and cutting open cars.

“(The camp) provides the opportunity to show them they can do this,” Harper said.

Harper, an 18-year veteran of the department, said many young women may be discouraged from a career in firefighting and emergency services because it’s an intimidating and physically and mentally demanding career. She said the camp shows girls a career in firefighting and emergency services can be long and successful. Harper said about 70 percent of the camp’s graduates have continued in fire and emergency services in some capacity — from volunteer to full-time firefighter.

“Even if girls don’t end up going into firefighting or emergency services the skills, team-building, confidence and trust they learn through the camp really carries into anything they do in life, whether it’s professional or personal,” she said.

By the numbers The Overland Park Fire Department understands the disparity between men and women at its department, where only 3 percent of its firefighters are women.

Fox, who has been with the Olathe department two years, is the only female firefighter of 102. Olathe Fire Chief George Bentley said the department is working to change that.

“Initiatives like the Explorer Program ... and Camp Inferno are essential to developing tomorrow’s leaders and organizations,” he said. “Investments in our youth are investments in our community’s future.”

According to statistics from an April study from the International Association of Women in Fire and Emergency Services, about 3.7 percent of firefighters in the United States are women. That figure pales in comparison to the percentage of female firefighters the study suggests there should be based on the number of women who were employed — as of the 2000 census — in 184 occupations “resembling firefighting in requiring strength, stamina, and dexterity, or involving outdoor, dirty or dangerous work.” The study indicates there are 17 percent women in those fields.

Fox said fire and emergency services is a male-dominated field, but all newly sworn firefighters have the same hurdles to overcome to gain the trust and respect of the department.

“I don’t see myself as a woman firefighter,” she said. “I see myself as a firefighter. I want people to treat me as an equal so I don’t see myself as anything different.”

Promoting fire and emergency services Camp Inferno’s enrollment doubled from last year to its capacity at 25 this year, said Jason Rhodes, an Overland Park Fire Department spokesman.

He said about half the cadets this year are from the Kansas City area, but the others include girls from Florida, Ohio, Canda and France. A woman interning with the Olathe Fire Department for three months is participating. Rhodes said the goal was to have a camp graduate ask to work for the Overland Park department.

“We’re confident that will happen some day, but right now, we’re just seeing that interest in the fire service in general,” he said.

Lauren Almeida, a camp cadet, said she became interested in becoming a firefighter after taking an emergency medical technician Class as a senior last year at Olathe North High School. The instructor encouraged the girls in her class to think about fire and emergency services for a career.

“I decided it’s what I wanted to do,” she said.

Almeida said she caught her mother by surprise after revealing her intentions to take fire sciences courses next fall at Johnson County Community College.

Another cadet, Samantha Stapp, has a father who is an Overland Park firefighter. She said she would become a firefighter. The 15-year-old, who will be a sophomore at Olathe North next year, said her father influenced her.

“He’s been sticking me on a fire truck since I was old enough to sit up,” she said.

In addition to increased interest in the camp, Harper said, more females are enrolling in Overland Park and Olathe’s Explorer programs.

The Explorer program, which is affiliated with Boy Scouts of America and run by local fire departments, prepares boys and girls ages 14 to 20 for careers in fire and emergency services.

Olathe’s Explorer program was started in 1991 and has seen increased interest among young girls, said Capt. Mike Hall, an Olathe Fire Department spokesman. Three girls, including Almeida and Stapp, are enrolled in the program. Fox was in the program before becoming a firefighter.

Fox said more girls come up to her each year and ask what they need to do become firefighters. In her second year at the camp, Fox and another firefighter work one-on-one with group of five girls in a “company” they named “Smokin Aces.” Whether the girls want to become firefighters or they’re trying something new, working with them is always fun, Fox said.

Fox also teaches the fire sciences classes at Johnson County Community College.

“I like to let girls know they can (become firefighters),” she said. “People will tell you you can’t do it, but if you put your mind to it, you can.”

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