CalFire SLO just wrapped up their yearly camp for young women, ages 14 to 18, who learn and practice firefighting skills around SLO County. It’s called Camp Cinder, and their goal is to promote diversity and inclusion among the firefighting community.
It is a five day firefighting training experience for young women held in both Redding and San Luis Obispo. One of the SLO group’s activities this year was training in the water off Old Port Beach.
“Today they're doing surf rescue. So they're gonna be on the back of a jet ski on a rescue board seeing what it's like to rescue people from the water,” said Cal Fire's Public Information Officer, Savanna Birchfield.
She said this year there are three squads participating in Camp Cinder and that CalFire has set up the camp so that each squad on each day can rotate between different fire training sessions.
“Cal Fire is an all-risk department. So we don't just respond to Wildland fires or structure fires. We respond to water rescue sometimes so we're giving the girls that experience,” said Birchfield.
She said this all started in 2014 by one of the SLO Fire Captains. Once the camp gained popularity CalFire picked it up and began to officially promote and provide services for the participants.
“We're meeting a lot of really cool girls. A lot of them are really passionate about this and we just want to help them succeed,” said Birchfield.
CalFire receives interest from young women all over California. Birchfield said, this year, there are participants from Riverside, San Diego, and even Santa Clarita that come to learn and grow for their own unique reasons.
“A few years ago, there were three fires happening right around my house. I remember having a mental breakdown every day because I wanted to be out there helping. I kept telling myself like, I'm sitting here while they're out there working their butts off. I just wanted to be involved and I wanted to help,” said camp participant Julia Stenvick.
Another camp participant, 10th grader Savannah Wulf-Vaughan, said she’s there to normalize women taking on the responsibilities traditionally assigned to men.
“Having women take this on is just a big accomplishment for all. It's showing younger women and other generations that we can do whatever we can put our minds to,” said Wulf-Vaughn.
This year all participants have graduated and received their CPR certification. CalFire plans to host Camp Cinder every summer for free to all participants.
