'It just shows you how capable you can be,' say women fighting fires in Wood Buffalo National Park

As wildfires rage in Wood Buffalo National Park south of Fort Smith, N.W.T., Sophia Xhekha showed up for the battle.

Now into her fifth season of wildland firefighting, Xhekha has joined dozens of other women who make up nearly half of the team of 111 firefighters at the park. It makes the crew a bit of an outlier — many wildland fire agencies elsewhere in Canada consist of a mostly male workforce, though the number of women fighting fires has increased in the past 20 years.

Xhekha took training for structural firefighting, originally, but took a job as a wildland firefighter initially as a way to build up her resume.

"Ever since then, I fell in love with it," she said. "You get to go to such remote places that not a lot of people can say they've been to, and it's just such a fun job."

Xhekha says the job is an empowering one for her. It's also a place where she's been able to meet amazing women and men in the field.

She said her team has a great support system, especially from crew leader Miles Barry.

"He always encourages us, teaches us new things — it's just a really good system, because everyone can bounce off each other if need be," she said.

Misko Finlayson, who has been fighting fires for two years, told CBC she applied for the job on a whim. She liked being in the bush, so she knew she was up for the challenge.

She said she's learned a lot of valuable lessons from other experienced women in the field — like last year, when she decided to try sawing.

"I didn't even see one in action until I joined this job," she said.

"I learned from a 6-foot-seven-inch guy who just rips around and does whatever he wants, and I'm like, 'Hi, this is really heavy. I can't keep going the way you can.'"

That's when her crew leader, Sasha Yasinski, stepped in. 

"Under her mentorship, [I learned] there is an entirely different way to use a saw," Finlayson said. "I didn't really realize how different you could utilize your body, your weight, I guess your centre of gravity and stuff."

She said once she made the adjustment, it made that aspect of the job much easier.