City’s first female firefighter picks up nomination papers
The first professional female firefighter hired by the City of Kelowna is running for a seat on city council.
Gayanne Pacholzuk is among the 42 people who’ve picked up council nomination packages from Kelowna City Hall, as of 4 p.m. Thursday.
She was hired as a firefighter in the late 1990s. “I guess I was the trailblazer,” Pacholzuk said in a 2018 interview about being the first female firefighter hired by the department.
In 2019, the last full year she was employed by the department as a fire prevention officer before retiring, Pacholzuk was paid $136,205, city records indicate.
Current city employees are not eligible to run for office unless they take a leave of absence during the campaign and agree to resign if elected.
In 2016, women made up only 4.4% of professional firefighters in Canada, according to Statistics Canada.
Women might not believe they could pass the physical tests all firefighter applicants are subjected to, Pacholzuk said in the 2018 interview with The Daily Courier.
“You have to be fit, no question, but you don’t have to be the strongest,” she said.
Some all-male fire departments have not universally welcomed female recruits, and there have been highly publicized cases of sexist behaviour toward women. But Pacholzuk said that was not her experience with the Kelowna Fire Department.
“I’ve been treated so well. I’ve never had a problem,” she said in the interview. “We’re all really good friends.”
Pacholzuk, who could not be reached Friday, has been active with Restor International, a Kelowna-based non-profit that helps train health workers and provides reconstructive surgeries to burn victims in under-developed countries.
She received the Fire Services Exemplary Service medal from the Governor-General of Canada on Oct. 19, 2017.