Firefighting is a male-dominated career and Huntsville’s fire department is no exception to that fact. It’s a statistic they are working to change.
This summer, the Huntsville Lake of Bays Fire Department plans to bring Camp FFIT (Female Firefighters in Training) to town, at the prompting of local volunteer firefighters Sabrina Lincoln and Annemieke Struyk. Camp FFIT is a week-long session for 15 to 19-year-old women that introduces them to what a career as a firefighter would look like.
“The goal of Camp FFIT is to spark interest in young women to get into the fire service,” Lincoln told Huntsville’s General Committee on March 29. “We are creating a non-threatening, supportive environment for these young women to see what we do, see the physical difficulties of the job, and get them interested. The camp builds self-confidence and shows them teamwork and camaraderie, and there are a lot of mentorship opportunities.”
Camp FFIT was developed by the Ottawa Fire Service in 2010 and is sanctioned by Fire Service Women Ontario whose mission is to “encourage, promote and advance women in the fire service,” says Lincoln. The camp has since spread to other communities, including Burlington, Hamilton, London, and Vancouver. This year, Vaughan and Huntsville will join those ranks.
The week’s training includes physical fitness, use of PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) and SCBA (Self Contained Breathing Apparatus), and fire ground skills such as ventilation, search and rescue, hose control, proper carrying techniques, use of ladders, extrication, rappelling and tying knots.
“When I was a young woman, I didn’t know if I could physically do the job and I didn’t really know what the job entailed,” says Lincoln, who volunteered as a platoon leader for Camp FFIT for the London Fire Department in 2016 to encourage other young women. “It is a unique opportunity.”
Deputy Fire Chief Gary Monahan (left) and volunteer firefighter Sabrina Lincoln introduce Huntsville’s General Committee to Camp FFIT
The department will use the Waterloo building and dorms as its base, and also the Huntsville and Port Sydney fire stations and its training grounds in Port Sydney. It has partnered with the Fire and Emergency Services Training Institute (FESTI) for the needed equipment. Volunteer instructors will lead the camp and female platoon leaders will live with the students in the Waterloo dorm. The camp fee – $450 per participant – includes accommodation, meals, uniforms (t-shirts and use of bunker gear), and transportation to the fire grounds.
Although the camp will be open to young women from outside Muskoka, Lincoln says locals are their target. “If we can get locals to participate in this camp…it helps us with future volunteers on the department and it creates jobs that they can go and have careers and still be part of the community.”
Deputy Fire Chief Gary Monahan noted that seven members of the Huntsville and Lake of Bays community – including Annemieke Struyk – are career firefighters, travelling to 24-hour shifts in other departments. “We would like (these young women) to be volunteers here, but chances are if they become career firefighters they are coming back to live in this community.”
Fire Chief Steve Hernen hopes that Camp FFIT will lead to an increase in the number of female volunteers in the local fire service. “Our population is 50 per cent female and our fire service doesn’t represent that, not through lack of trying. I fully support this program.”
Camp FFIT is slated to run August 9-13 and will accept 12-16 applicants for the program. Details on how to apply will be announced at a later date.
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