Of the 1.6 million firefighters in the United States, only 7 percent are women.
That's according to the National Fire Protection Association. Fresno Fire Chief Kerri Donis acknowledges the gender gap.
"I don't think that you're ever going to get away from this ever being a male-dominated profession," she said. "I think that will be forever."
Chief Donis and five other female firefighters will be retiring from the Fresno Fire Department within the next five to seven years.
There are no candidates coming up the ranks.
"I don't think that a lot of women ever think this is an option as a career," Donnis said. "I don't think it even crosses their mind. I know it didn't for me."
That seems to be true to at least a handful of young women we met working out recently in Clovis.
"That's never crossed my mind," says Ashley Dittmar, a Psychology Major at UC Riverside.