Sofia Huston panted heavily as she pushed to close the gap between herself and the colleague in front.
Clad in bright yellow heavy-duty uniforms, hard hats and gloves, the crew trudged up “Cardiac Hill”, a grueling terrain south-east of Santa Clarita, in Los Angeles county, and so steep “you could kiss the ground in front of you”.
The 50-minute-long training session left Huston, who weighs 113lb and wears 45lb of line gear plus a 25lb chainsaw strapped to her back, exhausted beyond anything she’d felt before. “I could feel the fatigue literally in my womb,” the 23-year-old says.
Huston is a hotshot – a firefighter who battles wildfires. She hasn’t had a period in three years, something she attributes to the physical intensity of the job, and the brutal training sessions crews are put through.
Oh, they are rethinking this total equality thing already:
Women in Fire, an organization representing and advocating for women in the industry, including hotshots, is working to promote policies that would secure light duty for pregnant women and breastfeeding for new mothers, says its president, Amy Hanifan.
That second wave demand for total equality didn’t last all that long then, did it?
I don’t suppose they’re advocating that those light duties come with a lighter pay packet?
This is an area where technology really would help. Boston Dynamics developed the Big Dog robot to haul heavy loads for the US military over rough terrain. The military rejected it because it had a loud motor that an enemy could hear for miles, but a wildfire isn’t going to hide, so repurpose the robots for firefighting. Even beefy blokes would be better set to fight fires if they weren’t weighed down getting there.
Doubtful she can keep up and do the job in a more than box-ticking sense. How far could she drag or carry some big fat sod like Murphy say –out of harms way? In Murph’s case failure would be a benefit for humanity but the point is valid.
And “feel it in her womb”. That is an odd-statement. After 3 years with no periods there must be a chance that they wont start again even if she stops the exertion.
If these hotdogs don’t have periods for years their chances of getting pregnant are round about zero. So WIF is just the usual grift.
If Sofia Huston can get through the training then surely she can do the job? If she’s fighting wildfires, she doesn’t need to drag people anywhere. I fail to see the problem.
Incidentally, how on earth is an on-duty firefighter going to fit in breastfeeding?
As always with equality, they want all the perks and none of the tough stuff. This works for any value of ‘they’, whether it’s blacks getting into university with shit grades and then complaining because they’re too thick to do the work, or wimmin in fire.
Women think that doing a blokes job proves something, but men just think that we have plenty of blokes to do blokes jobs, so what’s the he point?
Why on earth does any human who weighs ca. 50kg think that they can do a job as physically demanding as this? Unless they’re built like Thorin Oakenshield they’ve no chance.
Why wasn’t this person filtered out early in the recruitment stage?
There’s a reason why fireman used to have a minimum chest size.. (officially O2 consumption, but a proxy for strength)
I’m willing to go with minimum chest size as an employment requirement – ah, yes, sorry, see what you mean…..
I was talking with a copper recently (don’t worry, he couldn’t prove nothing) who told me that physical and mental standards basically no longer exist in recruitment for British plod. Unofficially they’ve gone full Police Academy, but without the fun beatboxing.
Which is great news, I love Demolition Man and always fancied going Simon Phoenix on the rozzers. Wesley Snipes is way better than that mumbling Eye-tie.
@Tim, I remember long ago a a story in The Sun about female applicant arguing exactly that. It’s why the requirement sticks in my mind..
So she has been doing this job for three years and the latest training session leaves her exhausted beyond anything she had ever felt before?!? No, that would have been the *first* time she did that particular training routine.
Bloody stupid asking someone who weighs 113lb to carry 70lb including 25lb strapped to her back – messes up her balance. However strong she might be, if she falls over because the weight drags her off-balance, she’s no help to the team. Going down the hill again would be dangerous for her.
Some women are quite capable of performing the job, and assuming they can complete the training on an equal footing with men they should have the opportunities to do the job. However, women are on balance smaller and not as strong as men, even many fit women. The young lady in question is probably fit if she is running up and down those hills carrying a heavy pack, even if it is a struggle. Nonetheless, if women train on the same basis as men more women will wash out and so the proportions of male to female fire fighters won’t meet the standards of a woke society. Obviously, there should be quotas, and more damage from more extensive fires is the just the price of equality and fairness.
All sounds a bit transphobic to me. Surely there are some strapping young trannies desperate for this work?
Demands for ‘ Equality’ seem to be quickly followed by demands for special treatment and the lowering of standards don’t they? It’s almost as if men and women, or Africans and Europeans, are not the same….