[chanting] ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ female: Ten-hut.

Sara Rathbun: We are at LA County Fire Department headquarters for the Women's Fire Prep Academy.

♪♪♪ male: Remember, during the academy experience misery loves company.

Sara: The design is to ensure that women who may not had any exposure to the fire service get some good exposure, some good confidence.

[chanting] all: Left, right, left.

Sara: And figure out whether this job is for them.

♪♪♪ Sara: LA County is a really unique department.

It's three times the state of Delaware.

It's ten million people with so many high rise buildings, the most intricate network of freeways you can probably deal with in the US.

Captain Kenneth A. Lee: We cover approximately 2,200 square miles, incorporated and unincorporated, as well as just under 180 stations.

Sara: We have around 3,000 firefighters.

♪♪♪ Sara: We have lifeguards, we have lifeguard paramedics, we have foresters.

male: Get back on the edge, get back on the edge.

Sara: We have dispatchers.

male: Copy that.

Sara: We have health hazmat.

We run airships that are Black Hawks that have been turned into firefighting aircraft.

We have contracts with Super Scoopers from Canada that come in to help us with our brush season.

We have an Urban Search and Rescue Program that goes internationally to respond to disasters.

It's an incredible place with huge opportunities.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Captain Lee: The WFPA is a hugely important program because, basically, we're trying to gain fire department personnel that represent the communities that we serve.

Now here we are celebrating our 100 year anniversary where we have less than 100 women currently working for the department.

So, the exposure of programs like this are meant to encourage young women to know that they can have a beautiful, bright, building career as a firefighter serving the community.

Katherine Whitby: Since I've been on the job, I think I was number 34 or 35, and we have close to double that in the short period of time that I've been with the department.

Lauren Veneri: This is where it all started.

I mean, it's such an honor to be here.

When I came in I didn't really know much about fire.

I knew I wanted to grow in this career, so this was the first step.

Lunden Junious: Long term goal?

To become a firefighter.

Courtney Williams: So, it's my third day and today we're learning about tools.

We learned about how to throw ladders.

We're learning ropes.

Everything it takes to be a firefighter.

Sarah Patrick: My friend told me about it.

She said, "I'm doing this fire thing.

You wanna join?"

And I said, "Okay, yeah.

Sure."

It was hard.

It was a lot of physical work.

Lunden: My favorite part has been being able to get out here and experience the different complexities of firefighting firsthand.

Lauren: It starts off with just a simple workout and then it grows to, "Wow, now I know how to fold some hose.

I know how to throw a ladder that I never thought I could possibly ever do."

Courtney: What I learned here is passion.

You have to be passionate.

female: Let's go, let's go!

♪♪♪ Sara: The grinder is the cement area where the candidates do most of the exercises that are going to prepare them to be firefighters.

The reason we call it that is exactly as it sounds.

It's where you grind out the hard work that will take you to the end of this journey, which is where you pin the badge on your chest and you get to go out and jump on big red and turn on the lights and sirens and feel like you're a kid every single day.

Sara: Is it dangerous to go in this house?

Might the roof collapse or the floors collapse inside?

All of these are factors in your consideration.

Lauren: The instructors are amazing.

I mean, they chose to come here and help.

So, that just shows who they are as people and how much they want to grow this program.

So, these guys are here donating their time on Saturdays so that people just like me can be given that opportunity to learn and get some hands-on experience with some of this stuff.

Sara: Where there's a department this large, there's an incredible opportunity to get into something that really you're passionate about.

Alexis Kendricks: The Tower, or the Academy, is a 20 week period where the instructors in Los Angeles County Fire Department teaches candidates all the aspects of fire service and gets them prepared to become a firefighter.

Kiah Fiers: I found out about the WFPA and they said, "Yeah, it's no charge.

Like, we just do it six Saturdays a year."

I saw a lot of female firefighters and I was like, "Wow, I didn't know there were this many women on the department."

Sara: The Women's Fire Prep Academy focuses on education, mentorship, and, in general, advocacy for women in the fire service.

There are not a lot of women in the fire service.

In general, the national average is about 4.5% in the paid firefighting professions.

And we sat down and thought about things that would assist women in understanding what was required to be part of this career.

Alexis: So, we started back in 2016.

Captain Leigh-Anne Orr: Myself and approximately 10 to 12 other women, we got together and started discussing how, women specifically, have our own needs within a fire station.

And a lot of times those needs aren't addressed and we kind of have to hide a lot of what we do so that we blend in because our department is all about teamwork.

We thought that'd be a great idea.

When you're surrounded by more people that are like you, there's more familiarity, there's more comfort.

Katherine: Here we have a strong group of women who have come together, founded the Women's Fire League, and are supporting each other, not only within the department, but we're bringing up other potential candidates and other women who realize that they, too, could have such a career.

Captain Orr: Me, personally, I didn't even think of ever being a firefighter growing up because, again, I didn't see a lot of other women doing it.

Sara: It's really important for younger women and girls to see people that look like them doing jobs they may not have been told are options for them.

And this is the case across ethnicities, across socioeconomic challenges, etcetera.

But, specifically for women, there are a lot of hurdles when it comes to some of these quote unquote "traditional" or male dominated careers.

Captain Orr: A lot of times it can be intimidating for a woman to go into a male dominated fire station and ask any kind of question.

When we decided to do this program and we started to bring other women in, we thought it was a great opportunity for them to also ask us questions and not feel judged.

I think being a woman in this profession, you worry about being strong enough or being tough enough or, "Can I do it?"

I think women have less of that opportunity without, kind of, the fear of doing it and asking questions with men who might not understand.

Sara: I remember a moment when I was younger, my father was a paramedic for the SWAT team for LA County and part of their job is mountain rescue.

And the first day I saw a woman hang out of that helicopter is burned into my mind.

She was his partner and it didn't mean anything to him.

That was just another paramedic.

But to me it was a woman and it was someone that looked like me doing the thing I wanted to do and it opened this door.

Alexis: Some people may hear the word firefighter but don't actually understand or know exactly what we do.

So, all firefighters coming in are EMTs.

EMT stands for Emergency Medical Technician.

The majority of the calls that we do respond to are medical, so we wanna make sure that our firefighters are prepared to handle those type of calls.

I am a firefighter paramedic so I'm able to give patients medication and take them to the hospital if they need advanced support.

Eighty-five percent of our calls are medical, so it's important to have because we just wanna make sure that we service the public the best of our ability.

That's why I'm here.

I've been a medic for the past four years.

Sara: We wanna make sure everyone's on an equal playing field and that we maintain the strict standards that we've always had for firefighters.

Katherine: I wanna work with the best of the best and with an opportunity like this, we're not lowering standards to get more women in the fire service.

We're providing better women candidates to join the fire service who are more trained.

female: Hell, yeah.

Good job.

Katherine: More prepared, stronger, fitter, and ready to do the job and know that they can.

And to me that's the most important part about this program.

Kiah: I've been on calls that have been maybe more in my wheelhouse as a woman.

Sometimes, someone would rather speak with a woman.

Maybe they're having some type of emergency relating to the pregnancy.

It's intimidating having ten men taking care of you.

I did go on a call where, in their culture, she didn't want any of the men to see her ankles, but they were having a childbirth emergency where the baby was being born on the scene when we got there, but she wouldn't let anyone lift up her skirt.

And it was kind of a cool moment for me.

I was able to get her in the back of the ambulance and talk to her and tell her, like, "This is an emergency situation and we understand your culture and the things that you want, but we need to make sure your baby's gonna live.

So, I need to see whether the baby is coming out."

And the baby was coming out.

We delivered the baby in the ambulance.

She rolled out into the hospital with her baby in her arms and that was, like, pretty cool moment.

Katherine: Your lines are not straight and I have mentioned it at least twice.

Six six.

Katherine: Mostly they bring me in for my strong voice on the fire ground.

I'm an outgoing personality, and so we try to bring aspects of the Academy to this intro to the fire service.

So, you're gonna be under stress, you're gonna be super criticized for any little error that happens.

female: See what happens when we're too nice.

Line up your jackets and get ready for pushups.

Katherine: And you have to be able to perform under pressure.

And that's where they bring me in.

female: It is your job to maintain your line behind her, behind her!

Lunden: Oh, loads of fun.

Lots of mental strength work.

Lauren: The instructors themselves, they're great.

They encourage you to keep going and that just helps the attitude of the whole program move forward.

Sarah: When you're on the grinder, you gotta just listen to what they're yelling at you to do.

Say, "Yes," and do it.

Very high intensity hard work, but it pays off.

Katherine: The goal of the Women's Fire Prep Academy is to prepare our candidates for what it actually takes to do the job.

So, we incorporate a circuit type workout which is, like, a high intensity circuit that builds strength and endurance.

We wanna simulate real life body movements that are needed to perform the job.

And we also incorporate a cardiovascular exercise like a run.

Now, part of the structure for this academy is to simulate the actual training academy where it's very paramilitary.

We're gonna be running in cadence.

You're gonna be fatigued, which simulates on the fire ground.

When you're out of air and you're working on a fire, you still have to think and you still have to respond and that's our job to teach them what they can build on here to become firefighters in the future.

male: Go get the next one.

Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up.

What's taking so long, 11?

What's taking so long?

male: Water!

female: Water.

Lauren: You learn everything from basics, like how to deploy hose, how to fold hose.

female: Drop it, drop it.

It's fully extended.

Drop it.

Let's go.

male: Get back, get back, get back, get back, get back, get back.

There you go.

Run it out.

Stop right there.

Lauren: Getting to deploy the hose and actually shoot water.

This is the incredible experience you get to take advantage of.

Sarah: The hose is heavy, but it's cool.

It's cool to shoot it.

The amount of power--water power coming from it is amazing.

male: There you go.

All the way open, all the way open, all the way open.

[water gushing] Alexis: A lot of people do not consider our ropes and knots as tools or equipment that we use within the fire service.

But there's various areas within a county, like Malibu.

Sometimes you may have accidents where people go over the side so you need those knots.

You need those ropes to use to help get patients out of their vehicles no matter how steep the hill is to rescue those patients.

That's what we're teaching the candidates here.

It's an important skill to have, something that we don't use all the time, but they become essential.

female: Go back to the side of your hips.

Grab those grab handles on your waist straps.

A little hard, so you get it over your hips.

Lauren: The SCBA is your way of being able to breathe in smoke.

So, toxic gasses, superheated gasses, they are what lead to smoke inhalation and that leads to death.

The SCBA is a firefighter's way of being able to get into a structure and be able to breathe actual air.

So, what we do here is we practice throwing them which means hooking them up to the backpack.

female: Cinch it down between your legs.

Lauren: And then putting it on your back and realizing what that weight feels like.

I think they're about like 35 or 40 pounds on top of your structure gear.

female: Put out your hand.

Be ready to be inspected.

Lauren: It's a really great opportunity to see how much weight you're carrying and how it is to breathe inside a closed apparatus.

♪♪♪ male: So, if I went straight in with this and this bad piece of wood, what do you think is gonna happen?

Courtney: My favorite thing so far has been the tools.

I love the fact that we get to rip through things, tear things apart.

And if that means ripping through a car to save someone's life, that's the pleasure I get in it.

male: Straight, straight, straight, straight.

Hold.

Sara: You're learning some forcible entry there today.

female: I have the triangle in and now I'm going to push.

Sara: How to break into a building that may be on fire, but locked.

female: That way I can pull the door open, check inside, and then close it.

Ready for my partner to come in with the hose line, okay?

male: This is what we call door control.

We don't want air to go in because once air goes in, then that creates more fire.

Katherine: So, we incorporate what we call the sledge.

That can simulate breaching walls or breaking through bricks.

It can simulate working on an axe on a roof when your chainsaw goes down.

So, there's a lot of different movements that that can simulate on the job.

We have a dummy drag.

It simulates not only a patient that we might find on a structure fire, but what if your fellow firefighter goes down in their 300 pounds worth of body weight and gear?

You need to be able to drag your coworker out.

And it's not necessarily just sheer upper body strength.

There's a lot of other muscles that we engage so they can train harder and come back stronger when they want the job.

♪♪♪ Leana Setian: Today, I'm training the candidates in wildland firefighting.

We're creating fuel breaks with tools like McLeod, Pulaski's, and shovels.

We're teaching them how to work in a team and communicate while they're cutting lines.

female: Go a little faster, the fire's burning.

Leana: And I also teach them basics on fire behavior and fundamentals of working on a wildland fire.

So, this past season has been really wet and rainy, which creates more fuel for the fire placing homes at risk of wildfires throughout California.

So, it's critical now, more than ever, to really prepare for the wildfires coming up.

Sara: Over at the wildland firefighting station they're learning progressive hose lay and that's where the firefighter wears the hose inside of a backpack and goes with the rest of their crew and lays that hose out.

[water spraying] Leana: It's amazing seeing how eager and passionate these candidates are.

They're working hard.

You know, it's hot out.

You can just tell how much they really want to be a part of LA County Fire Department.

female: Ma'am, yes, ma'am.

Captain Orr: One of the most intimidating parts of being a firefighter, or being a woman, to go through a fire academy is being able to throw a one person 24 foot extension ladder.

The ladder is approximately 105 pounds.

You have to lift it on your own, you have to carry it on your shoulder, and you have to develop a technique that works for you, especially when you're shorter.

And a lot of women--our strength is more in our lower body, not necessarily the upper body.

Lauren: The ladders for me was the defining moment of whether or not I can make it in this field because these ladders weigh upwards of a 100 pounds and you're expected to throw them by yourself.

Captain Lee: We have a proud tradition of actually using wooden ladders which are a little bit heavier than most ladders used by other departments.

So, it's really about technique and not so much muscle.

Captain Orr: We can take someone who is maybe--a woman who's 5 foot one and you look at her and you think, there's no way that she can throw that ladder.

And with technique and skill we've taught people to throw that ladder better than some of the taller men who you would think would be better at it.

Kiah: For people who don't have a height advantage it takes a lot more practice because it's heavy.

So, we have the 24 foot extension ladder, which is this single person throw.

That ladder weighs 105 pounds and it has a halyard and it has a fly section.

Set it, get your foot around the spur and make sure you stabilize the spur so it doesn't slide, grab the halyard, raise the halyard, lower your ladder into the building, get up there.

Lauren: So, these ladders, as heavy as they are, these instructors tell you exactly how to throw them, how the department wants you to throw them, and then how, based off that, people of my stature can throw them.

Kiah: It's something that you have to be able to do because in the moment the fire is burning the person's hanging out the window and I have to be confident doing it so that you can rescue that person down the ladder.

Captain Lee: I had a young lady who wasn't really the tallest and wasn't the most physically built, but by far one of the most committed.

She walked into this thinking that the ladders were absolutely heavy.

Through this program she didn't just pass ladders, she went perfect.

I actually got to watch the transition of a young woman, smaller than most, be fearful of something that she now has the confidence to teach.

There's nothing better.

Lauren: Before coming into the WFPA I knew I wanted to be a firefighter.

I just didn't know if it was a realistic option for me because I've never handled a lot of these tools and equipment.

Then I went through the Women's Fire Prep Academy and it made all the sense in the world.

It gave me that opportunity to see that I can actually make it in this career and it opened the door for a real fire academy afterwards.

Lunden: The WFPA has helped me out by putting me through the strenuous mental work that I'd need, testing my physical capabilities, everything that I would need to move on and test and become a firefighter.

Katherine: It's amazing to see this shift in culture just in the short period of time that I've been involved, not only with the WFPA, but with the fire department and the whole fire service.

Sarah: The other Women's Fire Prep Academy candidates were amazing.

It felt like you had a team supporting you and there's always someone helping you to push to go further and work harder.

Sara: Initially, it was all women and then we expanded the instructor pool.

What's it like to work in a multi-gender station?

It was great to hear the women give that feedback and talk through the minor changes that they make, which are no different than the changes that we make when we live in a multi-gender household.

Now, announce before you go into the one bathroom in the house.

"Hey, I'mma jump in the shower.

Does anyone need the restroom before I do that?"

And those simple little courtesies are just things that our fire service had to learn and, now, have become just regular parts of our day.

Captain Orr: I really enjoy seeing our previous members.

So, those that have come through this program come into our fire academy and graduate.

Katherine: My favorite part of this whole program is I often don't recognize candidates.

However, I've been approached on the job with women who have made it into our department and they're like, "I remember you from the WFPA."

Sara: I think that the most rewarding thing that we've seen over time after doing this program year after year is to see the same faces come back as firefighter instructors for us.

And they're--more than 40% of the instructors on the grinder today are graduates of this program.

Seeing their faces as they climb the aerial ladder, which they're going to do next week, which is 100 feet into the air, not connected to anything, and is kind of a rite of passage for a firefighter in an academy.

Lunden: My goal when I finish here with pre-academy is to apply for Academy and I will be starting a EMT school.

Courtney: I plan on getting my EMT.

I plan on graduating from the Academy and I plan on being the best firefighter here.

Sarah: I'm an EMT right now.

So, I think I'm gonna stick with that just a little longer, get some of that medical experience so that I feel I'm more successful when I do apply for fire.

Alexis: As you come into the service, you're a firefighter.

And then you promote to a paramedic.

So, as you promote, you've gained added skills and being able to give medication and take patients to the hospital.

As you become an engineer, you're able to learn how to retrieve water, get watch to your fellow firefighters.

As you become a captain, you're supervising over your firefighters.

It continues to develop as you continue to promote to a battalion chief and maybe even fire chief.

Sara: It seems like it's been super successful.

This is the seventh one.

As of the end of 2021, when we took our statistics, 98% of the women that had graduated from LA County Fire Department's Academy since 2016, they all were graduates of that program.

Captain Orr: Without the Women's Fire Prep they don't know if they would have made it through the Academy.

And a lot of them when they do come through they create a network.

I think in years past women used to kind of shy away from working with each other.

It was almost a sense of, oh, you don't wanna be associated with the girls group.

You're trying to separate yourself from the men.

And I think we've kind of changed that stigma to now we have a lot more of our women who enjoy working with each other.

We seek each other out.

We understand like, "Hey, I can work with that other woman as well.

I don't have to stay away from her," and it's not looked down upon.

In addition, we have a lot of our male members of the department who come out and are very supportive and they also participate and they're very helpful.

And I think that shows the other women, "Hey, there are a lot of members who are here to support you as well."

Not just the other women, but we have a lot of men on the job who are very supportive of the program.

Sara: A lot of agencies are trying to do a lot to increase diversity and improve the ability of a fire department to meet their needs of their community.

So, what some other agencies have done is send their folks up here to check out the Women's Fire Prep Academy, get the curriculum, and see the structure.

And they've taken it back to their departments and expanded it drastically.

female: Forward, start!

♪♪♪ female: Down, up!

♪♪♪ Sara: Anytime someone asks me, like, "How did you get to be a battalion chief?"

Or, "Oh, you must have really fought hard."

Sure.

I think I did, but I view it as more of a privilege than anything else because it's certainly not a right.

We worked very, very hard.

female: Down, up!

Sara: And if just seeing me on a fire engine is something that might tip the scales for some little girl.

female: Down, up!

Sara: Then we're going to get that diversity naturally.

Lauren: To be able to come back and give back to the instructors and the captains and chiefs that taught me everything that I started with here and share that with the people who were in my shoes, I can't even use words to express it.

It's just an amazing opportunity.

Courtney: If It's always been a passion, if it's a dream, you have nothing stopping you.

I say go for it and make it a dream come true.

♪♪♪ [shouting] ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ...