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‘Women can do anything’: Girl Scouts get training from female Austin firefighters

For the first time, the Austin Fire Department is teaming up with the Girl Scouts of Central Texas to host Camp Fury. The nationwide initiative includes a week of training on the basic skills of firefighting for girls who wouldn't otherwise consider firefighting as a career.

AUSTIN -- We call them America's Heroes. Hotshots. Firefighters.

The names we give them don't have a gender, but all too often we correlate firefighters with men. Yet the Austin Fire Department (AFD) is filled with women defying that stereotype. And this week, they're teaching the next generation that they can do the same.

"It's very much seen as a mostly male profession," said AFD Lieutenant Mary Ann Hubbard. "And nationwide I want to say there's less than 2 percent female firefighters."

Austin's department is more than 7 percent female and for the first time, the women of AFD are teaming up with the Girl Scouts of Central Texas to host Camp Fury. Camp Fury is a nationwide initiative dedicated to teaching girls the basics of firefighting.

"I was very excited and I didn't know it was going to be this hard," said Girl Scout Kacy.

"It's a lot of fun. Like, I think a lot more fun than I expected," 13-year old Riley added.

"At first I was scared," said Monica. "I was like nervous. I was like 'Oh this is so hard, I won't be able to do it.' But now that I'm actually doing it, it's still difficult, but I feel like I'm not scared or nervous anymore. It's like I did it and I'm proud of myself."

None of the girls had ever thought about a career as a firefighter. Neither did the lieutenant leading them.

"I didn't know it was a career option," said Lieutenant Hubbard. "It was when I was pursuing emergency medicine as a line of study and I kept running into people at hospitals, people at emergency scenes and they were firefighters and they would say 'Hubbard, you should be a firefighter.'"

Twenty-one years later, she's planting the same seed of encouragement into someone else. And it's working.

"Firefighting is a real career opportunity for me and most other girls," said Riley.

Monica's takeaway: Your gender doesn't limit your career choice.

"Women can do anything," she said. "And we can do anything that men can."

The Girl Scouts of Central Texas received such a positive response to the camp that leaders told KVUE News they plan to hold it again next summer.

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