Nineteen teenage girls graduated from the County of Brant Fire Department’s fifth annual Camp Phoenix program on Saturday, July 27, 2025.
Started in 2022, the free, interactive day camp gives young women between the ages of 14 and 18 the opportunity to develop skills associated with firefighting and learn more about careers in the field while they’re still in high school and making decisions about their post-secondary path.
Over the course of five days, campers received hands-on training through a series of evolutions that were designed to simulate real-life scenarios including fire prevention and suppression, basic first-aid, auto extrication and more.
They not only forced doors, took apart cars, and navigated wire entanglements, but they also got to learn about fire dynamics and work with the 53-foot Office of the Fire Marshal’s mobile live fire training unit for search and rescue scenarios.
“The girls have learned pretty much everything that would be taught in a recruit class, actually, but just really fast and furious,” said Lisa Herbert, Brant firefighter and one of the organizers of Camp Phoenix.
When graduation day finally arrived, the campers had the chance to show off and demonstrate their new skills to their families in the morning, before squaring up against fellow campers for the Phoenix Fit Challenge.
Each platoon was tasked with deploying a length of hose and hitting a target, forcing a door and hauling a dummy, navigating a series of obstacles and squeezing through a tight space, completing an old-fashioned bucket brigade and finally pulling a 12,000-pound fire truck known as Old Smokey over the finish line.
Herbert said she always looks forward to the day and seeing how far the campers have come.
“You know, we see them come in as unsure, shy girls who, during the day-one roll call, had very quiet voices and were nervous, but by the last day they’re shouting from the rooftops and feel super confident,” she explained. “Today just feels like one big party and nobody wants to leave by the end of day five.”
Addison Lange, this year’s Camp Phoenix valedictorian, shared a similar sentiment.
“I honestly loved it,” she said. “It feels weird to say, but after a week, this place feels like home and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
The 15-year-old went on to say that the biggest thing she’ll take away from the experience is the boost in confidence.
“I was confident before this, but it was much different,” said Lange. “I was scared that I wasn’t going to do as well as I thought I would, but the instructors made it a point to encourage us to push ourselves out of that comfort zone and that made it much more enjoyable and so much cooler.”
The valedictorian said her most proud moment of the week was getting through the entanglement.
“I was the most nervous about that one because it was closed off and no one could see you; it was just you and the entanglement, and you had to work through it. I got through the wires really quick, but then there was the wall prop. I had to get through a small opening with my pack and helmet on and that’s what made me nervous,” said Lange. “The instructor told us we could either go in with or without our packs, but I chose to do it the hard way to see if I could push myself to do it. He talked me through the entire thing, and I think that was the moment I’m most proud of because I genuinely didn’t think I could do it.”
She continued, “I genuinely want to thank Brant County for this. This has been one of the most amazing experiences for me, especially because firefighting is such a male-dominated environment. It’s amazing that they’re doing this to empower women because that’s what we need.”
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
