(newsy music) - I'm Starla Sampaco, in the "Crosscut" KCTS 9 newsroom.

Climate change has led to record-breaking wildfires across the West Coast.

In Washington, the 2020 fire season was one of the worst on record.

At the same time, a national firefighter shortage limits our ability to fight these fires effectively.

In "Crosscut's" video series "Deeply Rooted," female firefighters, who make up a small minority of the force, say, "Making the field more inclusive will help us better serve the community."

- 30 years ago, the national average was 4%.

4% of firefighters were women.

And then it went up a little bit and everybody got kind of excited, "Yeah, we're getting more women!"

And then it went down, now we're less than 4%.

We're lower, we're going the wrong direction, right?

And the question is, why?

- If you're standing with your crew, a female captain, nine times out of 10, the public is gonna walk up to the guy who works for her.

- I'm Starla Sampaco.

Watch full episodes of "Deeply Rooted" on crosscut.com (newsy music)