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; Page A-26 - She#on-Mason County Journal - Thursday, June 30, 2016
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continued from page A-23
"Laura's 5 foot 3, inches, 5-foot-4,
maybe, and she's not very big, but she's
right up there with the best of them,"
said Beau Bakken, North Mason Re-
gional Fire Authority chief.
Friese is also one of two female fire-
fghters in a class of 34 students at the
state academy.
"When I got here, all the guys kind
of looked at me sideways," Friese said.
"It was like, 'Oh, there's a woman. Is
she going to be all girly?'"
Friese, 29, is from Lebam, a town in
southeast Washing-
ton made up of about
160 people.
In her mid-20s,
Friese became a cer-
tified wild land fire-
fighter and spent
several summers
fighting wild fires
across the state. Two
Friese years ago, she de-
cided to volunteer at
a fire station in Thurston County and
begin working on structure fires.
"The first couple calls I went out on,
I knew this is what I wanted to do," Fri-
ese said.
Friese began training with the
McLane Black Lake Fire Department
in Olympia, and was hired as a resi-
dent. Because the job was grant-based,
it was uncertain and could run out of
fundlu at any time.
After Bakken met Friese, he knew
North Mason had a place for her. The
fire authority offered Friese a more
stable, full-time job earlier this year,
which she accepted shortly after the
new year.
Bakken said that because Friese is
from a small town, she is used to work-
ing in tight-knit communities.
She majored in Spanish in college,
so Friese has served as a translator on
calls to Spanish-speaking households
for the North Mason Regional Fire Au-
thority.
"She's been a great asset already,"
Bakken said.
The fire authority regularly sends
new recruits to a private fire-training
academy in Washington to make sure
they're ready to join the team. The
fire authority used to send recruits to
a training academy in Olympia, but
stopped this year after a change in
ownership at the academy. Instead,
they turned to the state-run academy
to train Friese.
Friese is the first North Mason re-
cruit to go through the Washington
State Fire Training Academy in 25
years, Bakken said.
Bakken describes the school, based
in North Bend near Snoqualmie Pass,
as a military boot camp for firefight-
ers. Recruits go through rigorous
Laura Friese, a firefighter for the NoAh Mason Regional Fire Authority,
State Fire Training Academy last week in North Bend.
unreels hoses
Herald photos by Brianna Loper
during a drill at the Washington
"On.one of the evaluations, it said she stays
late and works with people who are out of
shape. She's not just doing her own thing.
She's stepping up."
Scott Cooper, North Mason
Regional Fire Authority assistant chief
physical training each day, coupled like it if your house was on fire and a
with written and physical tests, group of firefighters showed up flip-
classroom work and on-site train- ping through their books to figure out
ing. The academy has training sites, what to do?"
or "props," in the shape of a six-story Friese said the academy hasn't just
burn tower, a warehouse, an aircraft, taught her about fighting fires; she also
dumpsters, a helicopter and the mid- learned a lot about herself.
ship section of a boat, which helps the "I feel like I've grown as a person
recruits learn how to deal with fires since I've been here," she said. "Yes,
in any situation. I've really honed my skills, but I've also
There is also a hazardous material gained a lot more confidence in myself,
prop, flammable liquids drill, and a which is a big thing."
search and rescue maze. Friese said when the academy start-
"It's great for the recruits to learn ed in April, she was wary of being one
here, because they actually get real of the only women at the training. But
experience," said Bob Miller, commis- instead of backing down, she stepped
sioner for the North Mason Regional up to the challenge.
Fire Authority. "They're not just learn- "I try to set standards for myself so
ing out of a textbook. How would you that the guys have to work to keep up
with me," she said.
Assistant Chief Scott Cooper said
the fire authority receives weekly prog-
ress reports about Friese, and staff
have been impressed with her progress.
,On one of the evaluations, it said
she stays late and works with people
who are out of shape," Cooper said.
"She's not just doing her own thing.
She's stepping up."
Friese said one of the hardest parts
for her is throwing ladders, which is
pulling long, awkward ladders off the
truck and running them to the site of
the fire.
"They're heavy, and I'm smaller, so
I had to learn to do it differently," she
said. "It may not be pretty, but I can get
the job done."
Her size does have some advantag-
es; Friese said when there are 15 fire-
fighters in a smoky building, practicing
a drill, she's able to duck and maneu-
ver around the bulkier firefighters with
ease.
"You know, once we put our masks
on, I'm no different from everyone
else," she said. "There are challenges
every day, but I make sure I'm measur-
ing up."
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