Camp BlazeFirecamp for young women Are you a young woman, 16-19 years of age, interested in finding out more about becoming a firefighter? Interested in developing your leadership skills? Camp Blaze may be for you. It's a week-long residential fire camp that incorporates classes, hands-on activities, and physical training in the fire service environment. You'll get a chance to learn in a supportive environment, challenge yourself to your physical limits and get an idea what firefighting is really about.
The goals of Camp Blaze are to empower and build confidence in young women through personal experiences in team-building and physical ability, to increase self-sufficiency -- not only as young women but also as potential future firefighters. The weeklong fire camp is a strenuous, demanding and exciting series of activities; many of them modeled on what real firefighters go through during training. Campers will have a chance to use real firefighting equipment under the supervision of active firefighters. Exercises, classes and activities include team-building exercises, introduction to the firefighter's personal protective equipment, use of tools and ladders, search and rescue, CPR certification, rappelling, self-defense, and live fire training and fire suppression.
Camps have been held in North Bend, Washington, and San Francisco, California. Our third annual Camp Blaze -- Camp Blaze 2003 -- was held in North Bend, Washington. Sponsored by the Seattle and Tacoma Fire Departments, we had 24 campers and 12 counselors. The camp is put on by BLAZE, an independent project of Women in the Fire Service run by a talented and visionary group of women firefighters and officers from fire departments across the country. Photos from the 2003 camp are on our website, www.campblaze.com.
Our next camp will be held this summer in North Bend, Washington. For more information about being a camper or an instructor, please visit our website. We encourage all firefighters to advertise our camp in their communities. If you know of any young women who would be interested, please send them to our website or download an application for them. If you have questions about volunteering as a counselor at next summer's camp, call Karen Kerr at 415/646-0711. For all other questions, please use the contact information on the Camp Blaze website, or e-mail zenith@campblaze.com.
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