When Jess Thomsen was asked to share her story about becoming Colwood’s first female full-time career firefighter, she hesitated.
While Thomsen is proud of the accolade bestowed upon her in March, she did not want to overshadow the men and women who work alongside her and those who came before her at Colwood’s Fire Department.
“I am the first woman career firefighter, but I'm not the first woman paid-on-call, and I'm not the first really great firefighter to work at Colwood,” she said. “There's been lots of people behind me who’ve worked just as hard and are doing the job the same as me, I wouldn't be here without them.”
But as she is the first female full-time career firefighter in Colwood’s nearly 80-year history, Thomsen realizes this is a moment worthy of reflection.
“I do want to get it out there that this is happening in Colwood, and we're moving in the right direction,” she says.
As the longest serving fire department in the West Shore, some may wonder why it has taken Colwood so long to reach this milestone. Across the border, Langford has had female career firefighters for several years; while in Metchosin, Stephanie Dunlop became the first paid female chief in B.C. in 2008.
Coming to Colwood’s defence, Thomsen says she feels timing and a smaller team of nine career firefighters might be why it hasn’t happened for Colwood sooner.
“Also in Colwood, there are paid-on-call females that were there before me and are still there now,” she adds.
Growing up in Colwood, Thomsen remembers the fire department’s strong presence in the community. “I used to go to the bonfires at Halloween, I remember seeing Santa Claus when they came around with the fire trucks at Christmas,” she says. “My best friend’s dad was a firefighter too.”
But despite her strong ties to the fire department, firefighting was never Thomsen’s first career choice. She had plans to go to medical school after studying biomedical engineering at the University of Victoria.
However, when she completed her degree, her plans changed; deciding instead to take a break from studying. That’s when she found herself drawn to the news Colwood Fire was hiring paid-on-call firefighters.
“I went to a recruitment session, and kind of just never left,” said Thomsen. “It wasn’t something that I'd been thinking about; it kind of just like fell into my lap and I ran with it.”
Her training began in March 2022 and by December that year, she was working on the night shift once a week. Her next goal was to become a career firefighter.
As well as igniting a passion for her new career, Thomsen also found familiarity in her new role. Having played sports from a young age, Thomsen has always valued teamwork – something she finds in spades at the fire department.
“I think firefighting is about as close as you can get to a team sport as a career without actually being a team sport,” she says. “So I really enjoy that aspect … and I really enjoy the hands-on aspect of the job.”
Being one of a few females at Colwood Fire, Thomsen says she has felt nothing but support from her male colleagues – the biggest obstacle on her journey to achieving her goal of career firefighter, she says, was herself.
“The stigma that comes from working in a male-dominated field is you really feel like you have to prove yourself as a female, at least in my experience … you feel like you have to prove your right to be there.”
How did she prove this to herself? Thomson threw herself into training, determined to gain the experience and qualifications she needed. “That is in itself proof that I'm capable of doing this job … the more I put into my training, getting my skills up, the more it built my confidence to that point where I didn't feel like I had to prove myself, I'd already done it.”
It’s this message of confidence she hopes to pass on to others.
While she has made her friends and family proud, Thomsen is aware her role as a firefighter may mean a whole lot more to others in the community, especially young girls.
“I would love to be the female that the little girls can look up to … see me with my ponytail and my fire gear on, and think, ‘Oh, that could be me someday.’”
