PHOTOS: In a weekend packed with empowerment and education, eight young women seized the opportunity to step into the world of firefighting. The Badd Axe Ladies job-shadowing program was not just about teaching skills, but also about igniting passion and showing that gender is no barrier to the ability to provide service.
Over four days, students from SIU and local high schools got to participate in a number of activities at the Carbondale Fire Department.
Courtney Looft, a firefighter and a co-organizer of the event, said, “The weekend is a two day event where they’re actually getting hands-on experience to do all the different types of skills. They learn forcible entry, hose management, search techniques and then the big event is they actually get to see fire behavior and how it develops and interacts with different elements."