THUNDER BAY - Maddy Arthur, a 16-year-old Grade 11 student, has always looked up to her dad as a leader, and this week she was stepping into a similar uniform as his to prepare for possibly following in his large-booted footsteps.
“My dad is fire chief of Shuniah and I’ve always wanted to be like him because I see him as a leader, so I thought it would be pretty cool if I could do something like him,” she said. “I think if I work a lot and work out, train a lot, this might be one of my options.”
Maddy was one of 16 young women participating in Camp Molly at the Thunder Bay Fire Rescue Training Centre, which began on Thursday and wraps up Sunday.
Camp Molly, named in honour of Molly Williams, the early 19th century African American woman who is considered the first North American female firefighter on record.
The camp aims to introduce young women between the ages of 15 and 18-years-old to various aspects of emergency services, particularly fire rescue.
Jennifer Delaney, director of Camp Molly in Thunder Bay and a training officer with the London Fire Department, said the participants are exposed to a variety of skills firefighters face on the job.
“They do all kinds of evolutions to get that skill set, hands on experience, auto extrication, medical training, catching a hydrant and flowing water so they understand hoses and pump pressure, they get to do some activities with forcible entry, and they have all learned how to don and dock the personal protective gear,” she said.
Delaney added that many students in high school are still figuring out what they want to do for a career, and Camp Molly exposes these young women to a career option they may not have considered.
“Some of them may have not even thought about whether it’s EMS, fire, or police, so coming to these kinds of camps they can be exposed to various streams within emergency services to see if one of them may be of interest,” she said.
A lot of Camp Molly participants have gone on to apply to be full-time firefighters or enter firefighter training programs across the province.
And this is a step in the right direction, Delaney said, as more women are choosing firefighting as a career than ever before.
“From my experience working with London, we have female recruits in almost every single class,” she said. “It’s a good balance because we all have different skill sets. But at the end of the day we are all doing the same job.”
Isabelle Lesderanc, 16, said she is interested in a career in emergency services, particularly paramedicine, but on Friday, she was busying taking a car apart with the Jaws of Life.
“It is the being active part and mostly the thrill of it,” she said. “We don’t really get any other camps for this. This is mostly the only thing I’ve seen involving this stuff.”
Maddy agreed that Camp Molly has offered a lot of hands-on insights into the world of firefighting.
“We get to try a bunch of different things like cutting open cars and seeing what it’s like in the trucks,” she said. “I get to see how heavy the gear is and how much you have to work out and put a lot of effort into this job. I think it’s cool I got to try this to see if I want to do this as a career at such a young age.”
And while the participants were trained how to break down a sealed door, they are also working at breaking down barriers to be part of what has long been a male-dominated role.
“I think a lot of things have opened up, like more women’s sports,” Maddy said. “So I think jobs like this, a lot of women are joining more now and it’s not just men.”
“At times it can just be our own mindset and feeling comfortable that we can do the same things,” Delaney added.
“But we can overcome that through practice, training, support from fellow co-workers or other people we have worked with or done school programs with who make us feel more comfortable with our skills.”
