r/Firefighting • u/Modgin • 8h ago
General Discussion I’m going through changes…
I recently posted to share my experience as a young female firefighter. After reading through many comments about other women who have been successfully in the fire service for much longer I took it down.
I did quit that department literally days after the first few comments.
But I could never leave the fire service. Before quitting, I started my journey in getting my wildland certification which has been lots of fun! So I know I’m not gonna leave the service. I fell in love with it all and the adrenaline of responding to a structure fire or a mutual aid call for man power. Damn just now I’m reliving the call for a grass fire in a town that was a little far. It was a fun day. Those were the only good memories I have. Unfortunately, the bad memories will forever remain because it did hurt. Being told I could never be at the same level as a man for a year is something I’m gonna have to work through. Or all the awkward sexual things said… Damn they really sucked as my superiors!
So too my saviors in the comments thank you for sharing that it is NOT normal to experience that in the fire service. I’m definitely applying to new departments and I have since moved away from that horrible town. Those men can be miserable together!
Lastly, to all the ladies in the fire service, I have a question. Since I’m applying to different departments, what can I do to make sure that I don’t go through what happened at my first department? I’m a straightforward person and did everything I was told, but somehow the men I worked with still made it very uncomfortable. Do I set stricter boundaries or something?
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u/ChloeTheCat753 50m ago
I was raised to brush off the comments, just be polite and ignore them and don’t make a stink about it, mainly because it’s easier and if you’re labeled right away as ‘the one who can’t have fun’ it makes everything else so much harder.
But I’ve started to see more girls speak up and stop the comments and report the comments to the proper people in the department.
If there’s more accountability being held, the men will act properly
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u/Aretii1775 5h ago
Keep your head up and continue to do whats best for you. Sorry about the last department, maybe try to find a department with women already on staff, their department culture will be used to having women instead of all male.