Camp teaches women about firefighting
Posted: August 13th, 2007 :: Epsom Fire-Rescue
A unique New Hampshire camp is teaching women what it is like to fight fires - from dousing them with water to wearing 100 pounds of gear.Camp Fully Involved at the state Fire Academy in Concord is one of four such camps in the country.
In its inaugural year, the camp provides training for young women, ages 15-20, for careers in fire service.
Last week, 14 women took the challenge.
Pam Freitas kept her cool as she and her crew advanced on a Dumpster fire, venting the trash bin before they extinguished the blaze.
"The heat was just intense. The excitement, it was incredible!" she said.
Many of the women carried nearly 75 percent of their body weight in the scorching sun as they practiced putting out exterior fires during one of a series of training exercises. They wore full turnout gear - bunker pants, rubber boots, protective hoods, helmets, jackets, masks and air tanks - that weighs just under 100 pounds.
The fire camps were started over the past five years in response to a growing number of women interested in fire science. The cadets and the 20 or so volunteer instructors are from all over New England.
The women also are taught search and rescue techniques, how to gain entry into a building, rappelling, cardopulmonary resuscitation and physical training.
"We've been running it according to fire house rules," said Jess Wyman, the camp director and a Nashua firefighter. "Shorts must be kept knee length or longer, hair up - we're running them by the book. They have to get used to it here."
The women wore bright yellow T-shirts printed with the Chinese proverb "Tell me and I'll forget, show me and I'll remember, involve me and I'll understand."
They were divided into four crews with individual flags. Instructors judge each flag, and the winning group acts as color guard at the graduation ceremony.
"You're supposed to keep your water and your flag with you at all times, and if you leave it somewhere, they make you sing," said Ashley Agri, 19, of Derry.
Katlin McKechnie of Epsom heard about the camp through her local fire department where she was training for her EMT license. McKechnie will study pre-medicine and biology at college to become a physician's assistant before eventually entering the fire service.
She liked a maze challenge where they put on air tanks and crawled through a darkened maze, going over obstacles they may face in a house fire.
"You get pretty gross, but it's so amazing and so much fun," she said.
Many want to become involved in the fire service as a way to help others and escape a desk job.
"Camp has created this bond, and we all have this one thing we all have in common: how much we all love and are so interested in this fire science," said Freitas, who came from West Barnstable, Mass.
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