Thirty-two women participated earlier this month in a free workshop designed for females interested in pursuing a career in firefighting or emergency medical services (EMS).
The Future Women in EMS/Fire Workshop, for ages 18 and older, was hosted April 12-13 by the Bellevue Fire Department as a way to get more women interested in the field and to learn what it takes to become a firefighter or paramedic.
Kent-based Puget Sound Fire firefighters Cassie Raub, Sandy Kelly, Rachael Blair and Mandy Fifield joined firefighters from other King County fire departments to assist as instructors and to be mentors for those who attended the workshop.
“This workshop is held twice a year and is very beneficial for the participants,” said Pat Pawlak, Puget Sound Fire spokesperson, in an April 21 email. “The workshop provides the participants to experience a portion of the hands-on training that firefighters receive as well as what firefighters must do on the emergency scene.
“More importantly, by participating in this workshop, the participants gain the confidence that they are physically able to perform the tasks that firefighters must perform. Additionally, they meet many female firefighters, some who previously attended Future Women in EMS and Fire, as participants, and are now working as firefighters.”
Activities for participants included CPR training, EMS and fire demonstrations, discussion panels hosted by women from various agencies around the county, personal protective equipment, fitness and workouts and various EMS skills such as backboarding a patient, taking vital signs and wound care.
In addition, all those attending participated in hands-on training using ladders, ladder carries and ladder raises, forcible entry, hoisting a hose bundle up to the third floor, exiting the drill tower, flowing water from a charged hose line, connecting a supply line to a fire hydrant, starting a chainsaw, performing 10 swings of a sledgehammer, completing an equipment carry and a dummy drag. They also had the opportunity to complete the search and rescue confidence course.
“It’s important that we educate, clarify, and remove any barriers that stand between the women in our great communities and career paths in the fields of fire and EMS,” according to a Puget Sound Fire Facebook post.
Puget Sound Fire has 25 female firefighters, Pawlak said. The agency has hired eight female firefighters in the past two years.
“We are seeing more women applying to become firefighters in the past few years and more women being hired as firefighters, not only in Puget Sound Fire but in South King County,” Pawlak said.
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COURTESY PHOTO, Puget Sound Fire Participants in the Future Women in EMS/Fire Workshop pose for a group picture.
COURTESY PHOTO, Puget Sound Fire Women learn at a firefighting workshop how to forcibly enter a door.
