LANTZ: An East Hants female firefighter has put her name into the milestone book for firefighting in the municipality.
When Kensa Harris was voted by her fellow firefighters to be fire chief, replacing the retiring Kory Orchard, she became what is thought to be the first female fire chief among East Hants fire departments.
It’s an accomplishment that Harris, who’s been with Lantz for 14 years, doesn’t take lightly.
“I think it’s a huge honour,” said Harris in an interview with The Laker News before a Wednesday night training session at Lantz fire.
ADVERTISEMENT:
She was asked how she felt about being named fire chief and the added pressure of being the first woman to do it.
“Obviously, I don’t want to mess up the job to start with, but I guess maybe it means people will be looking a bit more closely,” she said. “But being in this position in a fire department, I think has a lot of responsibility with it anyway.”
Harris said it will be nice for young girls in the community to see her in the role and know that they too can do it one day.
“It’s nice that maybe little girls are going to look up to you or even grown women in the neighbourhood, maybe read your article and get inspired to come down, and that would be fantastic,” said Harris, adding that departments like hers are recruiting to add more bodies.
“I don’t know that it’s going to make the job any different or my commitment to doing it well.”
She said even being a female firefighter in what is traditionally male dominated role has brought some added pressure a role model to young girls.
“I think even just as a firefighter here, we went up to Maple Ridge for one of their summer water days, and I drove our engine,” Harris recalled. “Some of the little girls, when they saw us pull in and realized that there was a lady firefighter driving the fire truck, they were surprised and excited.
“It’s something that regardless of being fire chief, you’re right there showing your face and people are seeing that girls can be firefighters and girls can be chiefs I guess.”
ADVERTISEMENT:
Harris said she hopes that she can inspire the younger girls.
“You’re seeing more women firefighters, but it’s still very much male dominated,” she said.
“I think there’s a lot that we have to offer and bring to the job. I hope that there’s little girls out there that are seeing that.”
She said she had some wonderful people around her when she joined as a rookie firefighter, knowing nothing about it and feeling intimidated because of being five-foot-three.
“I had some very seasoned firefighters take me aside and be like, ‘hey, I can teach you techniques that you don’t need to be six foot three and a strapping muscly guy,’” she recalled them telling her. “They told me they could teach me ways to do firefighting and said that it was all about technique.”
Harris said she felt lucky she joined when she did with the people she did and had that support that she did.
“I think I’ve been privileged to be in this department for almost fourteen years and seen a couple people in that role who I’ve looked up to,” she said.
“Now, I guess it’s my turn to do what I can to help the department move forward for a few years or however many years, and then someone else will take their place instead of me.”
