NORTH Vancouver-Seymour MLA Jane Thornthwaite says she has gained new respect for firefighters after spending a day in their boots at this year's Union of British Columbia Municipalities convention in Vancouver.
Thornthwaite was one of 38 officials and journalists at last month's annual meeting to feel the heat in Fire Ops 101, a hands-on workshop put on by the B.C. Professional Fire Fighters' Association at the city's Fire Rescue Training Centre to give participants a taste of what firefighters go through on the job.
The MLA, who described the experience as eye-opening, said just getting the gear on was a challenge. Though firefighters throw on 300 pounds of protection on their own, officials at the event got help strapping on air tanks, boots the size of clown shoes and a mask that often fogs and requires laboured breathing to pull in air.
Fully dressed, Thornthwaite, easily the smallest of her team at just five feet two inches tall, marched up the stairs with her colleagues, fire hose in tow.
"You're dragging a hose and just feeling your way along a railing, the steps, the person ahead of you and the wall, and it's dark and it's hot and you can't see a thing. It's terrifying," she said.
Thornthwaite was especially impressed by the strength required to use much of the equipment. In one exercise, she braced the back of a participant who used the fire hose to put out a car fire. When the hose is turned on, it can easily push someone onto their back if they're not prepared.
When she had to crawl through a confined space, she found that part of the job much easier, despite the pitch-black conditions. In fact, she constantly found herself in the dark, seeing with her hands rather than her eyes, a challenge she wasn't expecting.
The experience convinced Thornthwaite she won't be applying for any firefighting jobs in the future and left her with a sense of awe at the work firefighters do, she said. It takes a special kind of person to run into a building as everyone else is running out.
"I wonder if they ever get used to that," she said.
The experience translated into a better understanding of the job firefighters do that could help her as an MLA, she said.
