City of Helsinki Rescue Department appoints first female firefighter

Liisa Santaholma will begin her career at the Haaga rescue station

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By Jarmo Huhtanen
     
      "Don’t lie too much", a passing fireman remarks to Liisa Santaholma.
      Santaholma simply smiles and straightens her shoulders. She is sitting in the cafeteria of the City of Helsinki Rescue Department, which echoes in the early morning while it is still empty.
      The 26-year-old rescue service course participant is taking a well-deserved break. The next class begins in half an hour, but otherwise her 2.5-year training is almost complete.
      Today, on Thursday evening, Santaholma will hear the long-awaited command at the official graduation ceremony of her course: "Don your helmets!"
     
The traditions at the Helsinki Rescue Department’s own school include giving each student their own personalised helmet as a mark of graduation. Santaholma is the first woman to receive her helmet in Helsinki.
      "I have my first shift in Haaga on Monday", Santaholma reports.
      Few Helsinki residents know the capital city has its own rescue service school.
      "We are a part of the City of Helsinki Rescue Department. We have not made a huge fuss about ourselves", explains school principal Matti Waitinen.
     
The rescue school is located next door to the Laakso hospital, deep in Finnish bedrock. A 130-metre driveway leads to its door underground.
      The caves that have been dug into the bedrock house Helsinki’s central command for crisis situations, with room for 400 people. The rescue school is only borrowing the cave facilities, and the school’s cafeteria is actually a meeting room of the City Council.
      The graduating class has fourteen students, and many of them already have another profession.
      According to Santaholma, the group includes a cook, chauffeur, and nurse. She herself is a trained paramedic.
     
Santaholma first became interested in firefighting while completing her practical training as a part of her paramedic studies.
      "I worked in an ambulance at rescue stations and saw what firefighting was like."
      Two women have previously graduated as firefighter-ambulance drivers in Finland. Both studied at the Emergency Services College in Kuopio, which currently has three female students.
      Helsinki and Kuopio have the same curriculum, but the training takes one year longer in the capital city.
      This is because the special features of a large city, such as the subway, trams, and harbours, take time to learn.
     
The entrance exam of the rescue school places the same requirements on men and women. The road of women to the school is often cut off by the physical tests.
      For Santaholma, sports come as second nature. She attended a sports-oriented high school in Kuortane, and has trained seriously for triathlon. She spends her free time jogging and at the gym.
      In a Helsingin Sanomat interview one and a half years ago, Santaholma received praise for excellent performance during an apprenticeship period. She reportedly carried around even the heavy bags of fire-hoses with ease.
      "If you want to work in this field, you need to like to practice. The tests are not insurmountable for women. Just go to the gym to do bench presses, chin-ups, and squats – that is all you need to get started", she offers words of encouragement.
     
Santaholma has truly enjoyed herself at the rescue service school. "We have plenty of practical exercises here. That is the best way to learn." The course participants practice, among others, at the Haaga rescue station and in the Vuosaari district.
      The docks in Vuosaari include a practice range with freight containers that allow students to practice smoke diving in conditions very close to those of an actual situation.
      The atmosphere at the school draws praise from Santaholma.
      "The atmosphere here is really good. You cannot survive without a good sense of humour, because every second sentence is true and every other one a joke – except during drills, of course. They are taken seriously!"
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 9.12.2004
     
     

More on this subject:
 FACTFILE: Helsinki’s own rescue school

Links:
  City of Helsinki Rescue Department

JARMO HUHTANEN / Helsingin Sanomat
jarmo.huhtanen@hs.fi