After having lived with uncomfortable flame-resistant clothing for years, Hannah Haley decided to send CrewBoss an email about making accessible firefighter wildland gear for women. Through the work of CrewBoss, Haley, and hundreds of women testing the product, CrewBoss’ Ember line was born. With it, thousands of women now have accessible personal protective equipment (PPE). Here is the story of how it all came to be.
An Unforgettable Moment
Smoke slowly covers the sky in a soft hue as the sun rises over Half Dome in Yosemite National Park. A call for a lightning fire comes in, and a group of wildland firefighters wake up and put their gear on, ready for the job at hand.
For one of these firefighters, it was a sunrise they’ll never forget. It was the very first fire of the first wildland fire season ever for Hannah Haley, and this sunrise is the moment that made her fall in love with firefighting. In honor of Women's History Month, CrewBoss would like to feature one of the key players in creating our women’s wildland line: Ember.
High School Sparks Haley’s Interest in Fire Services
Haley never thought she would become a firefighter while growing up in California. Many of her family members described her as a troublemaker and lacked interest in fire services. It wasn’t until high school when Haley joined a regional occupation program led by Chief Phil Whitson that she began seeing what she could do in fire.
“So we had all of that available to us at our high school, and in the rural community I live in, and I live in Mariposa, California, just right outside of Yosemite. Either you get a job at the park. You get a job with the Forest Service, Cal Fire, or the Sheriff's Office. Like that's the type of career work here if you want a good job, and the fire program offered that. All the wildland training you need, all the basic structural training you need.”
“Most of the people that I went to that class with have stayed in public service”
“We had a flashover container at the high school, and we did flashover training. We worked with the Mariposa County Fire Department. We got training from Cal Fire, training from the Forest Service. So all these different units came in and helped make this class happen, and most of the people that I went to that class with have stayed in public service in one way or another.”
Entering Into The Forest Service
Haley credits her teacher, Chief Whitson, as being foundational to how she got her first job with Yosemite National Park. Every day, he pushed Haley to be her best self and brought out the best of what she could accomplish with her abilities. When the park service came looking for applicants, Chief Whitson recommended Haley for the job.
“They were short on their crew, and they needed more applicants, and they had historically come to the class to try to find people for Yosemite National Park. He recommended me, and I had no idea. He helped me get my app in and do all that. I ended up getting a job with a twenty-person hand crew being one of two females on that crew, and I had no idea what I had gotten myself into.”
“I think mentally... I don’t think there is preparing a young kid for that.”
For Haley’s first season, she found it challenging yet rewarding for what she accomplished. It changed her life in many ways as she started making better decisions and making better choices. She started working harder and improved her physical strength and stamina.
Even though her first season on the service involved a few close calls and even a hospital visit due to an infection, Haley liked it enough to return for three more seasons. After this, she received her permit for the forest service as a fire apprentice. She worked on Hotshot crews and engines before getting promoted to Assistant Fire Engineer and eventually a Fuels Captain, her current role.
Preparation & Mindset
A lot of mental and physical preparation goes into a job like this, and preparing mentally and physically was a challenge.
“I think mentally... I don't think there is preparing a young kid for that. There's so much that goes into this job, and there's so much that goes into the situational awareness that you gain. I think that just kind of has to happen. You just kind of have to get that shell shock, and every new firefighter does. It's just like a rite of passage almost.”
“However, physically. Oh yeah. I should have prepared physically way more than I did. I had no idea what I was getting into. I thought the little runs I was going on and the little bit of weight lifting was OK, but it was not at all. And looking back on what an 18-year-old me was doing to prepare for this job was like it's laughable to me now.”
“It's fun to look back on and realize, you know, that some people have a little bit more guidance and know what they're getting into and understand that physical aspect. And some people need a little more support, and I was one of those people. Yeah, after the first season, I stayed busy over the winter, and I made drastic improvements in my second season.”
Philosophy on Life
Haley believes that speaking out for yourself and others is the best way to accomplish things in life. With the idea that the worst you can say is no, Haley believes in keeping high integrity and always speaks towards what she believes in. Ensuring women have a voice in the fire services has been a large part of her career.
“It shouldn't be about male and female firefighters. We're just firefighters. We're all people trying to do the same job. We have the same goal, so just do your job and do it well. I feel like if people have criticism, you just kind of gotta brush it off. You know you can't take things personally. Just do your best, do your job, and their opinions, at the end of the day, don't matter. You just have to have good integrity.”
“It shouldn’t be about male and female firefighters. We’re just firefighters.”
Haley later went back to her high school class and taught lessons to the next generation of firefighters. She’s even worked towards mentoring women just entering into the fire service.
“You know, there've been some young girls that I worked with in that class, and they're now volunteering with the county that I've ended up on fires with. They come up, and they say, ‘hey, I'm doing this because you came. It was so awesome. You talked about this in my class. It was cool.’ And that's wonderful.”
Advocating for women in fire is what brought Haley to CrewBoss in the first place.
The Origins Women’s Firefighting Apparel
While working on a Hotshot crew, Haley was one of the members in charge of ordering the new firefighter wildland gear for the team. Overall, everyone got together and decided on CrewBoss. Haley had tried CrewBoss before and was impressed with its durability, but the garments didn’t fit her the same way they did for her male counterparts.
Previously, Haley had resorted to putting moleskin on her thighs and hips since the provided PPE would cause chafing and bleeding. Haley questioned why this should be the case and believed women shouldn’t have to deal with ill-fitting wildland fire gear when fighting fires. In 2016, with the idea that the worst they can say is no, Haley sent CrewBoss an email asking for women-specific, flame-resistant clothing.
“I feel like every generation is supposed to get better. That we’re supposed to make it easier for the next group coming up.”
CrewBoss New Product Designer Jeff Yee got back to Haley and jumped on a call together to discuss the current issues of firefighting apparel and how the current market was holding things back. Yee started making a list of the challenges Haley was dealing with, but Haley believed she shouldn’t be the only one speaking about that.
“I didn't feel I could just speak for myself only. So I started reaching out to other firewomen and asking them, 'hey, are you having these same issues? Is it just me?' I got a flood of information from hundreds of female firefighters that were like, ‘No, this sucks. We need something else. This is awful. We're having the same issues. This is what I hate the most.’ And so I just kind of tried to compile that info to give to Jeff. Like, hey, this is what we're all saying. Here are the common themes that I'm picking up so far.”
Haley sent her measurements, and Yee started to design the garments.
The Beginnings of Ember
“He started designing some pants, and then we talked about shirts and what were some of the limitations with shirts and you know some of the women that are more fuller chested, not being able to have shirts that fit them right and having to wear four sizes bigger and not being able to move."
"I think there were seven or eight different pairs of pants that he sent me that I would try on and use for a few weeks or whatever, or just try on and send back. It depended on what the issues were with the pants.”
As each new iteration of the design came to be, CrewBoss decided to administer a survey to get an idea of what our women’s line needed to accomplish.
“I widely distributed the survey for the women as much as I could and pushed it as much as I could. I bought my own seamstress measuring tapes and literally glued them to the pages I printed out myself so people who wanted to do the survey would have a measuring tape. I brought them on every fire assignment I went on, every training I went to, and I posted up in dozens of offices all over the place.”
The Legacy of Fire-Resistant Clothing For Women
After multiple iterations of the design, CrewBoss came out with Ember. Even though the entire process was a lot of work, Haley is proud of what she and CrewBoss accomplished with their collaboration.
“What it means is that new firefighters like me in the very beginning don't have to put Moleskin on their thighs, so they don't bleed. We don't have to suffer anymore. It means that all the women moving forward that choose to be in this career do not have to be uncomfortable just to work in this job. We get to be just as comfortable as the men we work next to.”
“We’ll be just as safe, just as comfortable, and be able to do our job the way we best can.”
“That's the legacy. That's the importance here. That's the big deal. We have justice. We'll be just as safe, just as comfortable, and be able to do our job the way we best can because yeah, me having to hold up the crotch in my pants while I hike up the hill does impact my ability to perform. It does, and that's what I had to do, and my male counterparts did not. Most of the guys did not have to do that.”
“That was a hindrance. Now, we won't have that hindrance. And that's a huge deal. That's a huge deal just to be able to level the playing field. I’m so excited about that. They don't have to suffer. I feel like every generation is supposed to get better. That we’re supposed to make it easier for the next group coming up, and we're achieving that, and that makes me really proud.”
What’s Next?
While Haley enjoys the fire service, she does eventually want to retire and become a chief. In the long run, she never wants to stop helping women achieve their goals in fire. Just like how Haley wasn’t afraid to reach out about women’s firefighter wildland gear, she believes this is the best advice for female firefighters everywhere.
“Find your network of other firewomen to talk to. They're out there. There are Facebook groups for wildland women, and if there's something wrong. If you're facing adversity? Talk about it. Talk about it with somebody. Don't hold it in yourself. It will crumble you. Talk about it. Share it. It makes it real. You're able to move forward from it, and there's someone out there that's been through it who can help you and is willing to and would love to."
A Thank You From CrewBoss
As March is women’s history month, CrewBoss would like to send our appreciation to all the amazing women who took the time to test and give feedback on our Ember line. Having effective women’s fire-resistant clothing is important to the safety of our fire service members, and all of you contributed to this accomplishment. The accessibility this line of fire-resistant clothing provides will give thousands of women access to comfortable and protective PPE.
If you would like to learn more about how the Ember line came to be, you can read more about it here. Our number one mission is to keep you protected and provide clothing accessible to all people. Please, don’t hesitate to contact our sales team at CrewBossSales@crewbossppe.com to learn more about which PPE is best for you.
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