DC firefighters go viral, hope to inspire young girls to pursue the job

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captionElementsArray captionElements captionElementsArray forEach el if el size el style width size width px el style display block These DC firefighters went viral here s why they re grateful for it At the time they thought it was a rather innocuous photo With -hour shifts it s something they do all the time to have a little fun during their downtime at the Southwest D C firehouse around L Enfant Plaza But then it went viral and they think it s a good thing The picture indicated five firefighters all Black women standing in front of their truck last week The photo blew up getting hundreds of comments and thousands of likes My mom s reaction was Oh that s nice technician firefighter Krystal Stover explained My family specific of my ignorant cousins When a calendar coming out she declared to specific laughs But all joking aside if a picture is worth a thousand words they declared they believe this one spoke volumes for little girls No one really expects when it s your time to go viral I m grateful for it Stover a -year veteran with the department reported She also works as a recruiter with D C Fire and EMS There s little girls out there that s watching that never thought Hey I yearned to be a firefighter before but shoot they re having fun while they re becoming a firefighter Stover declared Working out of L Enfant Plaza on th Street Southwest they run calls down to the Wharf but also at the White House Crews from this house are on standby whenever Marine One takes off or lands That means a lot of significant people might have to rely on them at a moment s notice It shows young girls that they can come on this job and do this job Monique Collier stated We do have fun but we work and we are held to the same standard as the men We have to pull the same weight we have to pass the same type of courses and the same type of physical tests that they have to take Truck Co at our L Enfant firehouse staffed in current times by an all female crew of DCsBravest pic twitter com SmZjbugnb DC Fire and EMS Department dcfireems July Joining them that day but not part of the crew on a regular basis was Sgt Whitney Ward who was there for a few training work The -year veteran of the department revealed she s had a lot of people tell her it was work she couldn t do These are roles that you can take and you can become officer a technician a fire investigator fire inspector You can do the job just as well Ward reported Don t limit yourself whatsoever They ve also heard from other women firefighters around the country All these ladies knew that D C Fire and EMS is women and they also know that s still nearly triple the national average So they were also getting peppered with questions about gear that s been fitted for women as well as policies including how the department handles pregnancy and new mothers Stover and Ward were mothers when they joined Chanel Olden wasn t but is at present They all praised the city for how it s accommodated them Related stories Group of firefighters sue DC fire department over facial hair DC cuts ribbon on renovations to nd call center ensuring crisis helpline never goes offline Virginia Beach first responders sent to Texas to help with flood recovery efforts The department does not make you pick between your job and your family Olden reported But don t make the mistake of thinking they aren t dedicated We are a bunch of pretty faces in the picture but we still do the work here day in and day out Olden reported Anytime we re on shift whether it s our shift or overtime The crew made clear that if other girls around the city are curious they re happy to talk more about being a firefighter with them They also mentioned they needed to get the word out about their upcoming Camp Sparks which is a weekend camp held at the city s fire training facility in Southwest that s targeted at girls between and as well as the cadet project for those who are between and and have either graduated high school or have a GED Women are taking over right now within the fire utility and I would love for more of us to join Ward mentioned Source