Pittsburgh Hopes Girls Fire Camp Spurs Firefighting Careers

(TNS) – In 1976, the Pittsburgh Bureau of Fire hired Toni McIntosh as the city’s first Black female firefighter, who also happened to be one of the first female firefighters in the country. This week, the city hopes to continue that legacy by educating more young women about the career in an effort to better diversify the force and reduce the barriers that prevent women from joining.

Monday kicked off the first day of the city’s first Girls Fire Camp, designed for teenage girls to learn about firefighting and possibly jump-start a career with the city’s bureau.

Of the over 700 firefighters with the Pittsburgh Bureau of Fire , only four are women.

There is currently one woman going through the eight-month recruitment process, and though that would bring the total number of women on the force to five, most within the bureau agree that number is far too low.

“Firefighters engage with the community, so getting people from different backgrounds, genders and perspectives enhances our department’s ability to better serve our community,” Lisa Epps-Cuda , who is running the camp, said to the girls on Monday during their introduction.

Ms. Epps-Cuda, who wears many hats within the bureau including handling the fire department’s coordination with all three sports stadiums and fireworks events, is a fire inspector and public educator within the fire department.

She said that this camp, which was first thought of in 2018, was designed to be “by women for young women” to help shift away from the male-dominated culture that currently exists in fire departments across the country.

“The curriculum of the girls camp is designed to challenge, but to build confidence and courage,” Ms. Epps-Cuda said.

By the end of the week, the girls will be certified in CPR and Stop the Bleed techniques and go through various firefighter physical training sessions.

Part of the week will take place at the Fire Academy on Washington Boulevard , where the girls will do common firefighter drills like carrying a dummy and practicing forcible entry.

The forcible entry test is the most common test that causes women to fail their recruitment, Ms. Epps-Cuda said, because using a sledgehammer isn’t a technique they’re used to.

Another test commonly failed by women trying to be firefighters is what’s called the Bend and Touch, where recruits have to bend over and touch their toes, stand up straight and twist to touch a square painting on the wall behind them. They must do this 23 times in 30 seconds.

The attendees at the Girls Fire Camp will practice both of those tests.

The goal of the camp is to give the girls all the tools they need should they decide to pursue a career as a firefighter, by “bridging the gap” between women who go through the recruitment process and those who actually become firefighters, Ms. Epps-Cuda said.

In addition, near the end of their week, they’ll get a crash course in the application process to be a firefighter; that way when they’re eligible they will already know how to apply.

All four of the current female firefighters signed on to be instructors for this inaugural Girls Fire Camp. On the first day, Colleen Walz , who was the city’s first female firefighter lieutenant talked to the girls.

Ms. Walz is retired now but used to be a deputy chief.

“I always focused in my career, on the fact that it was service,” Ms. Walz said. “The bottom line is the service we provide to the community at the worst periods of their lives. To be able to be of service in times of need, sometimes that’s more than money can buy.”

That call to service is one of the things that brought 16-year-old Damaya Reynolds to the camp on Monday.

A junior at Allderdice High School , she is about to enter her second year of Emergency Response Technology classes through the Career and Technology Education program at Westinghouse Academy .

Damaya said she thinks she wants to be a firefighter when she graduates high school, but she isn’t entirely sure yet.

“There are other things I want to do, but I’ve already learned a lot of stuff,” she said,

Her main attraction towards firefighting as a profession comes from the community aspect of it, where helping people every day is just part of the job.

That theme reverberated across many of the girls in attendance.

Ajayda Jetter, a 13-year-old CAPA student, said she was particularly interested in learning CPR because she has a little brother at home.

“I want to learn some tips and tricks to save someone’s life,” she said.

Some of the other girls, like 17-year-old Isabella Fero said she wasn’t sure what she wanted to do when she graduated from high school, and this camp was a way for her to explore a different career path that didn’t have to include college.

To be a city firefighter, applicants must be 18 years old and have a valid driver’s license. No college education is required.

In addition to discussing why they wanted to become a firefighter and what aspects they enjoy, the women didn’t sugarcoat the realities of the job.

Karli Burnham , the city’s second-ever female lieutenant, explained that rates of suicide, depression and substance abuse are all higher in first responders.

She explained that as physically demanding as the job is, it is also mentally taxing. But, with a support system, it is possible to manage those aspects of the job.

“You get to help people on their worst day, but at the same time you have to watch them go through their worst day,” said Lindsay Bihler , a fire lieutenant.

The Pittsburgh Fire Bureau has a PTSD support group and will connect firefighters to therapists or reach out if they know certain firefighters were on a particularly difficult call, Ms. Bihler explained to the girls.

Mayor Ed Gainey also stopped by the first day of the camp along with Public Safety Director Lee Schmidt . Both discussed how exciting it was to get the camp off the ground.

“I’m looking here today, and I see future firefighters,” Mr. Gainey said. “I see firefighters that are women that have said ‘I will break the glass ceiling and I will show the city that women can go get it.'”

He explained that it could be this group of girls, sat in a circle at the Ebenezer Baptist Church on Wylie Avenue in the Hill District , that changes the perception of women firefighters.

At the end of the week, the girls will graduate from the fire camp and their families will get to watch them go through an obstacle course at the Fire Academy , in the proper gear.

In the next few years, most of the girls at the camp will be old enough to be eligible to apply for a firefighter position in Pittsburgh , which officials are hoping they do.

In the meantime, Ms. Epps-Cuda said that the city hopes to keep hosting these camps to continue to break down the mindset that firefighting is only a man’s job.

Hallie Lauer : hlauer@post-gazette.com

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