BANFF – Women and other under-represented groups in firefighting are not only fighting fires.
Starting a career in fire suppression in northern Ontario, transgender Rhodri Wiseman quickly learned the male-dominated industry was going to be challenging to tackle.
“As part of gender diversity not often represented in fire careers, I have definitely had some pretty difficult experiences with fire suppression – the fire culture there was definitely a lot of pervasive misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, and I didn’t feel safe being a transgender person,” said Wiseman.
“I tried to stick it out and sort of be the change for a long time and then it just started feeling ground into dust a little bit.”
With more opportunities in the United States, Wiseman transitioned from fighting wildfires to growing a career in prescribed burns following inspiring sessions with Indigenous elders who work to reclaim the traditional use of fire on the landscape.
Questioning the ecological soundness of some of the fire suppression work they had been involved in – putting out fires that perhaps could have been allowed to burn for ecological reasons – Wiseman quickly became interested in fire ecology.
“I was hooked,” said Wiseman, who now works for Ecostudies Institute in Washington state as a fire practitioner and fire partnership and training specialist.
Wiseman was one of approximately 35 qualified fire personnel who participated in the Women-in-Fire Training Exchange in Banff National Park May 1-12, a conference to engage all different genders, ethnic and racial backgrounds to explore the growing role of women in fire management.
Known as WTREX, the interagency conference is an intensive 12-day training exchange that combines practical live-fire training with indoor learning and discussion to advance participants’ qualifications and experience in wildland and prescribed fire operations.
“I appreciate the opportunity to come here and talk about and share experienced with other people who’ve maybe had similar things, challenges, and discuss the similarities and differences between our experiences and how to be in solidarity with one another and expand the conversation on diversity,” said Wiseman.
Part of the conference involved helping Parks Canada in its prescribed fire operations for Compound Meadows, a burn that has been on the books for several years aimed at restoring habitat in a critical wildlife corridor and protecting the nearby Banff townsite in the event of a future wildfire.
Unfortunately, prescribed fire operations got out of control and burned about three hectares when unexpected winds pushed flames from Compound Meadows to the east side of Banff Avenue, forcing evacuation of a nearby resort, reception venue and horse corrals on May 3.
In the following days, disgusting and deplorable personal attacks surfaced by armchair trolls on social media, laying the blame at the feet of WTREX, ironically highlighting the ongoing misogyny, sexism and racism these under-represented groups face in the firefighting industry.
Parks Canada is investigating how the prescribed fire operations got out of control, but agency officials were quick to point out the prescribed fire was already on the books, regardless of whether or not the conference was in town.
Jane Park, incident commander for the Compound Meadows prescribed fire and the only type 1 incident commander in Parks Canada, said had WTREX participants not been there to participate in the burn, and then help to control the fast-spreading fire, the situation may have been much worse.
“It 100 per cent helped,” said Park, who has had a 21-year career in the fire management industry with Parks Canada, including as fire and vegetation specialist for Banff National Park since 2011.
“Having the calibre of firefighters and incident management team members that we have had, I can safely say that was the cream of the crop that we had here, and that really did help in the rapid response and the coordination with the other agencies we had in a really short period of time.”
For Natasha Ouellette, a forest ranger from New Brunswick whose job includes putting out forest fires, the WTREX conference was appealing for many reasons, including getting inspiration from other women facing similar struggles.
“I am all on my own for a lot of the time. In the province, there is not a lot of women doing this kind of work so it’s great to come here and see other women doing the same job I do and in higher positions,” she said.
“Being here, makes me feel like I belong.”
It hasn’t been an easy journey in the male-dominated industry for Ouellette, who started her career in 2016.
“The first year I started I was pregnant so I had to navigate what pregnancy looked like for a forest ranger, what I could do, what I couldn’t do,” she said.
“I had no other females to talk to, so that was really hard, and then after having my son, navigating how to be a mother and a firefighter at the same time," she added.
“I had to find my own path. My co-workers were very supportive, but I had to advocate for myself and sometimes I didn’t know what I needed, right.”
Women still constitute a relatively small proportion of the workforce, filling roughly 10 per cent of wildland fire positions and even fewer in leadership roles.
In recent years, there has been an increased effort to recruit women into fire positions, yet social and cultural challenges remain.
But new recruits often find the male-dominant fire management system to be dismissive of female perspectives and strengths, even as its increasing complexity requires fresh approaches and insights.
Kiah Allen, from Cranbrook, B.C. has spent 10 years in the firefighting profession.
Starting out on a 20-person type 1 crew unit in B.C. in 2014, she quickly noticed she had to be a strong advocate for herself to work her way through the ranks.
“Women are the minority and a lot of times when you’re overlooked it may not be intentional – people tend to look and hire and give opportunities to people who are like themselves,” she said.
“The challenge is making sure you put your hand up and say over and over again that I want that opportunity, I want to be here, I want to be in this position and showing that you deserve to be there.”
The WTREX conference in Banff has also helped Allen realize she is not alone in the industry, pointing to an inspiring speech from the first type 1 incident commander in the United States.
“There’s so many things you can relate to,” she said, noting she has had few opportunities to work with women in the firefighting world, particularly in leadership roles.
“You don’t feel like you’re the only person who sometimes feels like they’re alone in the organization, or that there isn’t someone else who hasn’t gone through the same struggles, or feels the same way – there’s that camaraderie and just feeling validated.”
Too many girls and women still see firefighting as a man’s job, and despite the challenges, Allen’s wish is they consider applying for jobs and advocate for themselves.
“There’s a place for you in wildfire,” she said.
“I think it’s intimidating to join an organization that you don’t feel you’re represented in, but there will be women and general minorities there to support you. They’re always going to be your allies.”
Park, who helped organize the WTREX conference in Banff, said one of the aims is to accept diversity at all levels into the fire industry.
“I’ve had conversations with people, and it’s not just women, it’s all sorts of people from diverse backgrounds that say that because they don’t see themselves represented, it hinders what they think is possible,” she said.
“I’ve probably felt that sometimes too … it’s important for people like me and the people that are here to see themselves represented, to see what they can accomplish and be motivated to accomplish in their careers.”
With climate change extending fire seasons and the extreme nature of wildfires, Park’s new motto is “all hands on deck.”
“If we don’t have everybody, whether that’s people from every background helping out and Indigenous communities doing cultural fire, it’s going to be a huge problem,” she said.
“We need everybody to be doing their part and if we have exclusion of certain members of the community, then that’s fewer people to help with the issues.”
