Elli Brownfield, right, gives it a go at spraying the hose with the help of firefighter Jennifer Nehrig, June 30 at Station 13. Photo by PHILIP B. POSTON/Sentinel Colorado 
Firefighters and Camp Spark campers put away fire equipment after going through a demonstration with the firefighters at Station 13. Photo by PHILIP B. POSTON/Sentinel Colorado 
Two attendees to Camp Spark climb into protective sacks that are used in wild land fire fighting, to protect the firefighters from the flames if they become surrounded. Photo by PHILIP B. POSTON/Sentinel Colorado
AURORA | Sporting a T-shirt emblazoned with the logo of the New York City Fire Department, Elli Brownfield was beaming in the bay of Aurora Fire station 13 last Friday afternoon.
The 16-year-old Ponderosa High School junior was ogling the extended chrome trellis of Aurora Fire Rescue’s ladder 13, grinning as she explained the drills, skills and activities slated to fill her weekend.
“I think it’s so fun working with the equipment,” said Brownfield, who trains and competes at the Colorado Gymnastics Institute in Aurora. “It’s really fun to climb the aerials and go up high — the higher the better.”
She’d just spent the past several minutes practicing with the bevy of equipment that rides with the station’s hulking firetruck, including chain and circular saws used to cut structures open, the so-called jaws of life designed to slash through car chassis and a heat detection device that allows fire personnel to locate hot spots in dark or smoky environments. When aimed at the concrete outside of the station on the penultimate day in July, the instrument measured more than 130 degrees.
Brownfield was one of 20 young women and girls who attended Aurora Fire Rescue’s Camp Spark from July 30 to Aug. 1, a free series for Front Range middle and high school students designed to introduce female-identifying youngsters to the field of firefighting.
“When I started, there wasn’t a lot of women in the fire service to begin with, and there wasn’t a program like this to see if this is really for me,” said Aurora Fire Lt. Valerie Solano, who came to Aurora Fire six years ago after several years with a department in Colorado Springs. “So we wanted to create that here.”
Along with Fire Medic Kathleen Hancock, Solano said she designed the program to introduce campers to softer professional skills that can translate to any vocation.
“A lot of the camps that are trying to expose women to the fire service are only female-operated camps, so they only have female instructors,” she said. “And while I think that’s cool, that’s not a great representation of what the fire service is, and it doesn’t prepare these girls to go out into the actual workforce. So even if they don’t choose the fire department as something they want to do, I want them to have the skill set where they can be able to introduce themselves, look people in the eye and have conversations with men that are going to be their bosses and their colleagues. I think it’s important.”
Currently, about 11% of Aurora Fire Rescue’s several hundred employees are women, which is higher than the national average, according to Sherri-Jo Stowell, spokesperson for Aurora Fire Rescue. Fire personnel in Boulder have committed to hosting a fire service that is 25% female by 2030.
Nationally, about 8% of all firefighters are women, but that number dwindles to 4% when stripping volunteers out of the equation, according to a 2020 report from the National Fire Protection Association.
But Aurora Fire’s Station 13 beside the Tallyn’s Reach Library made for a natural fit to kick off the camp’s 2021 session as half of the hub’s crew is currently female, according to ladder captain Donald Holsworth.
“This is a great spot for Camp Spark to come and see some influential, strong women do this job that’s been traditionally male for 100 years,” he said.
Campers spent Saturday and Sunday at Aurora’s public safety training facility on East Quincy Avenue, staying overnight on a matted floor to wake up at sunrise Sunday morning and begin skill exercises.
“We’re going to put them through the ringer,” Solano said with a grin.
The camaraderie between Aurora’s male and female firefighters is part of what inspired Madyson McConaughy to return to the camp as a mentor two years after she attended the first iteration in 2019. The program was nixed last year due to the pandemic.
“At first it was just something I found on the internet,” said McConaughy, who graduated from Grandview High School in 2019. “And then as I got into it, the physical aspects of it and just being able to know that women are able to do this type of job that’s, like, a male-dominated thing, it was amazing. Seeing all these men and women helping each other out — it was just great.”
Fresh out of EMT school at Denver Health, McConaughy said the camp solidified her desire to soon start applying to local fire academies.
“It sealed the deal,” she said. “Like, this is what I want to do.”