Burning Down Barriers – IOTW Report

Burning Down Barriers

Thursday, 25 April 2024, 10:00 MJA Uncategorized 16

Female Firefighter Conference Causes ‘Out of Control’ Forest Fire

Training exercise aims to ‘build allies’ by showcasing value of ‘gender diversity and inclusion.’

16 Comments on Burning Down Barriers

  8. …Back in the Bush 1/Clinton years, my little suburban FD had a grand total of 4 chicks, which is all the more in the entire community that ever showed an interest. It was only part paid for one thing so you could build career experience there but not really have a career, so it wasn’t financially attractive like a big-city FD; but also, being small meant if you showed up, you were going to WORK.

    And there’s nothing glamorous about walking 5″ supply line at 3 AM on a frozen January morning, or carrying around 150 pound ventilation fans, climing around on roofs with gasoline powered circular saws, or dragging shouldering, soaking wet lumps of furniture out of a house or throwing them trough a former window so you can pull them apart with metal hooks to be sure they are not going to be a problem.

    Not a lot of women were up for that, apparently.

    And of those who were, one was a larger, somewhat doughy chick who was the wife of another FF, she did the work but I was always afraid she was going to have a heart attack on scene (she never did) to the point where I would usually sit her down after one bottle if I was AO on that run because she looked like heavy breathing shit; another who was the mother of another firefighter (got started young) and was pretty wiry, mostly held her own but preferred EMS to firefighting; the third a tiny woman who we had trouble finding turnouts for that tried hard as hell but just didn’t have the bulk for it (if the next guy on the hose line didn’t brace her the nozzle reaction force would knock her over, and forget about her dragging a 300# guy out of a burning house); and one lady who was a Squad captain and trainer and never went into fires except to do EMS things.

    That was it.

    I think chicks are GREAT at EMS. Patients open up to females more, you DEFINITELY want a chick in the back of the ambulance for female patients, the girls have more sensitive and nimble hands (not as calloused as most guys) so they are better at finding pulses and palpating veins, and women (I know this is considered “Hate Speech” now but it’s still true) are just naturally predisposed to be healers and caregivers because of natural maternal instincts.

    But most women don’t want to put on 150 pounds of gear and roll around in scorched insulation for a hobby.

    Especially when you come out of it with your whole body smelling like sweaty feet.

    …outdoor fires are even WORSE, in that they are MORE physical, not less. I have a limited knowledge as most of my outdoor burns were highway mulch fires and vagrant campfires, but we trained of course and talking to folks like our former commenter here “Aaron Burr” (I miss him) and proud parents of crazy-brave smoke jumpers like “Brad”, you mostly get a hoe, an axe, a chainsaw, and a shovel, and a VERY large area to work in, so everything you do is going to require a SUSTAINED physical effort that, frankly, the male body is much better suited for than the female.

    But I suspect the problem with THIS incident is more profound.

    These chicks were there to affirm each other’s feelz.

    Not to fight fires.

    If THAT’S your mindset, the fire will beat you every time.

    And shit COULD have happened, wind shifts, bad terrain, different things could have gotten out of hand on ANYONE, but I would bet a thousand iOTW bucks that when they realized it was out of hand they DELAYED calling for local help, because that would have brought MALE firefighters and they were THERE to prove “we don’t need no MAN!”.

    And I further bet that any proof of that will be buried on pp.1638 in the appendices of the fire report, IF it’s allowed to be recorded at ALL.

    Because “The Narrative” is more important than burning down forests and houses and placing lives at risk.

    The whole female empowerment thing is based on a willful denial of hard truths.

    So ignoring, even “cancelling”, any additional truth that contradicts is is just expected behavior.

    Someone is going to have a pink pen on that report.

    And people, male and female, firefighters and civilians, will die needlessly elsewhere because of this ongoing refusal to accept reality, because killing people is OK as long as there’s a story you want to tell that those who rule consider to be more important than mere human lives…

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  13. Just keep in mind that MANY of those forest fires last summer were ARSON but the Greenies tried to blame Global Warming etc.

    The left does not mind an incompetent Fire Crew. They will find a way to blame Carbon Dioxide & Donny Trump…

    2

  15. Kcir
    THURSDAY, 25 APRIL 2024, 12:58 AT 12:58 PM
    “But the Truck is OK right?”

    …sometimes trucks get caught by wind-driven fires or poor apparatus placement, but the main thing holding a fire truck up is being laid in with supply and attack lines; that is why some axes are carried on the OUTSIDE of the truck…
    https://i.pinimg.com/736x/46/40/b5/4640b5d74ad74bebf8a66d6971a55a7f.jpg

    …but by and large you don’t use water for that type of fire anyway, unless you drop it from an aerial tanker. You need too much, fire trucks cant go everywhere the fire is, hydrants aren’t common in the woods, tanker shuttles take too long, and again you don’t have time to get laid in and if the wind shifts you DAMN sure don’t have time to stow. Woodland firefighting involves shovels and spades and chainsaws and hoes and flamethrowers for setting backfires, and a fire blanket so you might be able to survive being “burnt over”. if you DO have water, its in an Indian tank backpack and you have what you can physically carry in at 8 pounds per gallon, and THAT’S usually just for spot fires.
    https://www.jmesales.com/indian-fire-pump-5-gallon-galvanized-fire-pump/?msclkid=87e4bc685abf1ec20335da42cbfca03d

    It’s hard, dangerous, dirty and sweaty work covering large areas in hot weather, and can take a REALLY long time (they don’t call the larger ones “Campaign fires” for nothing), and will test the endurance of the hardiest of men.

    Which is why women tend to not want to do it,

    And why there are problems if they try to do it while proving “They don’t NEED no MAN!”.

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