The Calgary Fire Department, in partnership with the City of Calgary’s Indigenous Liaison Office, will be launching a first-of-its-kind firefighting camp for Indigenous Albertans from Treaty 7 territories in April.

The camp is aimed at giving Indigenous individuals a tangible way to learn hands-on firefighting skills, including putting out fires and using fire hoses and sprinklers, using the tools on a fire truck, going through a burn house with no visibility and full of smoke, doing patient extractions from vehicles, learning basic medical response skills, and undergoing physical fitness training for firefighting.

The goal, said Calgary Fire Department Chief Steve Dongworth, was to encourage more Indigenous individuals in Southern Alberta to consider firefighting as a career.

“We really just want to give the opportunity to expose Indigenous youth who are the First Nations, Metis, urban Indigenous, or Inuit—provided they live on Treaty 7 territory—to what the work of a firefighter is,” he said.

“I’m sure not all of them will want to be a firefighter, but we’re hoping with some of them do.”

The model for the camp, he said, would be similar to other camps and initiatives that the department has run, such as those for potential female firefighter recruits, Camp Courage, which aims to entice girls and young women to consider careers as firefighters, paramedics, and police officers, and the CFD’s cadet program.

Working to increase Indigenous presence in the Calgary Fire Department

Chief Dongworth said that the fire department has maintained deep relationships with the City’s Indigenous Liaison Office, including having a former member of the CFD join that team.

“We’ve worked to have a very significant presence on the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, and we always have fire trucks there. We actually suspend the flag, the orange flag… and we’re proud to be part of that ceremony every year,” he said.

He said that the department has also done innovative work to remove barriers for Indigenous ceremonies that produce smoke indoors, including smudging, when fire codes might otherwise not allow for them to occur.

“We try to develop that cultural sensitivity to allow that kind of thing to take place with the right kind of precautions in place. We’ve done our work around trying better to reflect the community we serve,” the Chief said.

Chief Dongworth said that this was not the first time that CFD has held a camp of this type, having previously held one for Indigenous firefighters living in Northern Alberta, but would be the first time that the program would be held on an ongoing yearly basis.

“We’d love to see some of these folks come back as Calgary firefighters, just as they would be stronger community members, which is the goal of our cadet program and the other youth programs we do. But if we can help recruit firefighters for other agencies, specifically those that are on reserve like Tsuut’ina, just on our border… I think that would be great as well,” he said.

The camp is current recruiting for up to 24 individuals who are younger than 18-years-of-age before the start of the camp, and are living in Treaty 7 territory.

Training is set to be held from April 26 through 28.

For more details on eligibility requirements, or to sign up for the camp, see www.calgary.ca/our-services/fire/indigenous-camp.html.