Firefighting is in Katie Jo Benitz’s blood. Ever since she grew up with her mother fighting fires and doing EMS, when she graduated high school in 2021, she said she had to try it out. To run into her mom at the Cow Canyon fire, she said, was a very special moment for both of them.
“I didn’t want to push her into something that she wasn’t truly passionate about, you know, just because it’s right for me. I didn’t know if it would be right for her and it absolutely is because she just glows when she talks about fire and EMS,” said Bonnie Rogers, her mother and a captain and training officer at the Benton County Fire District #4. Captain Rogers was the first female firefighter at the BCFD #4 in 2010.
Her daughter said, “She’s been my biggest idol. Like, I’ve always looked up to her and been, like, ‘Yeah, I want to be like her.’”