KamloopsBCNow is excited to take readers on a walk in the shoes of Kamloops' most interesting jobs!
I live in Kamloops with my two young girls and my husband Jordan who is also a firefighter. I moved from Winnipeg to Kamloops in 1992, where I attended high school at Kamloops Senior Secondary. I started my career in Kamloops 17 years ago in 2001, and most recently, I was promoted to lieutenant, which makes me the first female fire officer in the Kamloops Fire Department.
I think when you choose to pursue a career as a firefighter, you expect to respond to fires, car accidents and medical emergencies. What you don’t understand until you start responding to these events, is the realness of all those things — suddenly they are not just a concept or something you learned how to handle in a training evolution.
Firefighters are generally called to mitigate bad situations and often those events are someone’s worst day. We go from being in a fire hall to being in the middle of a road where two cars have crashed or we’re in someone’s living room where their family has to watch us perform CPR on a loved one.
You get inserted into these events and they can be surreal and emotional. They can also be extremely rewarding and exciting and those are the moments that I think help sustain and motivate you.
I have become more confident taking on challenging tasks that I would’ve been hesitant to work through before I became a firefighter. I have a level of comfort now that has evolved from experience and training, which I didn't have during my first few years. I’ve been exposed to skills I wouldn’t have acquired outside a more conventional career path and I find I often tackle tasks outside the job as if they were a problem I was solving on the job.
Naturally, as the years have rolled on, I have moved through the ranks from a first-year firefighter to a senior firefighter, and now I am lieutenant. I’ve been in more of a leadership role the last few years and that has been something I’ve needed to grow into and adjust to.
A challenge unique to being a firefighter in a municipality like Kamloops is that we are farther from any other departments and cover a huge geographic area. Because of this, we have to be proficient in all aspects of the job early on in our careers. We are all trained from our first day on some level in rope rescue, hazardous materials, water rescue, operating different fire apparatus (rescue trucks, engines and ladder trucks).
You have to be ready to be tasked with any of these jobs from one day to the next. Bigger departments have firefighters that spend their first five or so years doing the same task at incidents and may not operate a fire truck for years. We accomplish in Kamloops what larger cities do, but with less manpower and mutual aid resources further away. The firefighters in Kamloops are among some of the most well rounded and trained people in this profession because of this.
Some obvious challenges we face are simply our working environment. On a daily basis, we deal with toxins from the products of combustion from fires, hazardous materials, infectious diseases, traffic both en route to calls and when working at the scene of an accident and any other number of dangerous situational events.
Firefighters historically have had one of the highest rates of cancers and other occupational diseases in any profession as a result of years of exposure to their environment. This challenge is being met with better gear, more awareness and programs aimed at keeping us safer, but our business operates in these environments and it will never be completely eliminated.
One other challenge involves our mental health. Traditionally people in the fire service have this tough guy persona and a habit of burying feelings associated with what we deal with. PTSD and other mental health concerns are a very legitimate problem for our profession. Getting firefighters to acknowledge and access help when they need it is promoted and encouraged but it can be a hard transition for some of us.
For me, it would be in 2001, the year I got hired. I had started in April and had been working on the job for less than half a year when September came along. I woke up to go to a day shift on the morning of September 11th, and like everyone else, I saw what was unfolding in New York. The entire shift, in between responding to calls, the crew and staff were all together in front of the TV.
We spent the day dissecting every new piece of information, mesmerized by the images that played over and over. It was then that I had realized that I was part of this special community of men and women.
In spite of the tragic circumstances, it made me proud to be part of this profession. It wasn’t just this childhood concept of riding on big trucks and being inside burning buildings anymore, it was a serious and important job that I felt connected to.
The ideal shift is one where everyone goes home to their families at the end of it, both for us and the public we serve. When we are able to utilize our skills and training for a good outcome it boosts the morale of the crew and the department as a whole.
First and foremost, being adaptable and finding a comfort in “thinking outside the box” is important. Every day is different and you need to be able to react in a moment to changing environments and apply your knowledge and experience to what’s in front of you. Having a great sense of humour is key. At times it’s needed to blow off steam as well as being a big part of the fire hall culture.
The desire to learn new concepts and improve skills is another important trait. Tactics and technologies change and you must keep yourself up-to-date on advancements. Similarly, not being afraid to ask how to do something and constantly questioning “is there a better way to do this” is so vital.
Staying physically and mentally fit so you can continue to function at a high level throughout your career is a must. We can’t stay 25 forever and the physical and mental demands of the job don’t let up as you age. So it’s absolutely required to have a lifelong commitment to fitness.
I come from an athletic background. I was a competitive gymnast by the time I was five years old. I was always strong, extremely competitive — not much has changed! — and I really didn’t like being told what I could and couldn’t do. I remember in grade six, the principal had come to our class and asked the teacher for, “ five strong boys” to help move desks.
I remember being so bothered by that, especially since at the time, I was the strongest person in the class! I thought why am I not being considered for this task? What if I want to move desks too and get out of class? Feeling that indignation really fostered a sense of “why can’t I?” I think it’s what drove me most of my life to look for challenges that interested me.
Somewhere along the line of around 13 or 14 years old, being a firefighter must have popped into my head, and like most things, once I get the idea to do something I rarely let it go. I was drawn to the excitement and exclusivity of such a unique profession. So this became my goal, and I did everything I could to prepare for the eventuality of being where I am today.
Erin is one of the many firefighters who make our community a safer place by providing care in emergency situations.
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