After nailing the fitness test and proving she isn’t claustrophobic or afraid of heights, Jody Hagel, 29, has been invited to join the Campbell River Fire Department’s auxiliary.
The call for volunteer firefighters went out earlier this summer.
“My brother went through firefighter training in Vermillion and I got a good sense of what that was like and the physical aspect of it and the mental aspect of it and that kind of confirmed for me that at some point I would like to do that,” Hagel said.
Now seemed like the perfect time.
Step one for Hagel was filling out the 37 page application package which covered everything from physical fitness to past and current jobs, references as well as community involvement.
Hagel also needed her doctor to fill out a form saying she was healthy enough to participate in the rigorous testing process.
After an interview at the fire hall, the next step was the physical testing.
“It is really important for both the candidate and the fire department because the candidate needs to understand if they are appropriate for the position,” Baikie said.
Hagel did the physical job assessment first at No. 2 fire hall.
She had to force her way through a door, search a confined area blindfolded, climb the 101 foot ladder and drag and raise and lower hoses as well as other tasks that tested for job related skills.
“It takes different muscle groups to do some of those things so combined with this fitness assessment it’s a good tool to know what they are getting in to,” said Thomas Doherty, deputy fire chief.
Hagel said the testing was fun and she felt bad-ass dressed in the full fire gear.
“The hardest part was trying to breath through the balaclava that was backwards on my face,” Hagel said.
The physical job assessment was only the first fitness test, Hagel also stopped in at the Sportsplex for the aerobic fitness assessment where they tested her grip strength, her flexibility and her endurance through tests like push ups, crunches and a step test.
Hagel does a morning bootcamp three times a week as well as other fitness training. She didn’t do any training specifically for the testing saying she didn’t really know how to prepare. But her usual routine proved to be enough.
She got the call a few evenings later congratulating her on her results. She was the only female who applied in this round of auxiliary applicants and she will be the fourth to be a part of the Campbell River Fire Department, there is one female career firefighter and two other auxiliary firefighters.
Now the real work begins.
“Both parties put in a lot of time and effort after this moment,” Baikie said. “We train pretty intensively and that takes our resources but also the candidate has to invest a lot of time and effort.”