Standing on a stretch of sidewalk just outside of a Los Angeles Fire Department recruit training facility in Panorama City, Italia Lagunas, a certified nurse’s assistant from North Hills, watched as her two daughters did push-ups, jumping jacks and squats in formation with dozens of other teenagers.
The Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) is overwhelmingly male. Women account for just 106 of the department’s 3,200 firefighters.
But all the participants in this Saturday morning’s drills were teenage girls. Lagunas’ daughters, Vashti, 14, and Abigail, 13, were taking part in Girls Camp, a weekend-long event aimed at introducing Southern California girls to a career in firefighting.
The LAFD launched its inaugural weekend camp in 2016 amid an aggressive push to recruit more women to the department’s ranks.