Ill-fitting gear puts female firefighters at risk, but that’s changing
When Heather Buren first started fighting fires in California more than 20 years ago, she remembers often wearing boots that were a size too big, but she couldn’t let that slow her down. She recalls other women with even smaller feet finding ways to adapt with the ill-fitting gear, like tucking an extra sock in the boots to keep them from slipping.
“When you’re in a situation and department that is so male dominated, you’re fighting all these fights about just fundamentally being able to be there,” Buren says. When it came to the gear, “This is one of those ones where we’ve just been like, oh well, we’ll just make it work.”
Big boots, slipping helmets, and uniforms that needed tailoring are just more barriers women need to overcome in order to thrive in fire departments that are still overwhelmingly male. Fire seasons in places like Australia and California are growing longer and deadlier, and fire services need every qualified person they can get to meet the challenge. Phasing in gear that fits a broader range of body types is one of the last frontiers to building a more diverse force of emergency responders. It’s also a necessary transition to keep them safe on the job in a world that’s increasingly on fire.
“It’s kind of a wicked problem,” Jennifer Taylor, director of the Center for Firefighter Injury Research and Safety Trends at Drexel University, tells The Verge. Baggy gear can be more than just a nuisance, Taylor explains. It can get caught on debris or branches, which can slow someone down or be downright dangerous while battling a blaze. Some women have tried altering clothing on their own to make it fit better, only for those alterations to fail in the midst of a rescue.
