Heidilynn Virtudes: Razing the heat with the boys

Firefighting is a male-dominated field. But the lack in numbers is compensated by the responsibility held by the few women firefighters. Fire Inspector Heidilynn Virtudes, chief of the personnel department of the Bureau of Fire Protection-Region VII office, believed that one’s gender is not a hindrance for a person to excel in a field she chooses even if it is a machismo profession.

A graduate of the Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA), Virtudes has been through a lot of tough times with his male counterparts. “We get to do the things that they do. We were not given special treatments just because we were women,” she said. And to be treated differently is not what she would have wanted.

Life at the PNPA

When Virtudes finished her course in BS Information Technology she realized that she was going nowhere and so she decided to enlist with the PNPA. She recalled the regimental training that she had to undergo professing that the training prepared her for the rough world of firefighting. “We wake up at 4 in the morning and by 4:30 we jog (around the school grounds) before breakfast at 6:30. After this is the academics part of the training.”

“The hardest part is in the first three months of training. There were no academics yet just purely physical training. It is during this time that you get transformed from the civilian life we’re use to, to the disciplined regimental form of living. This is the part where you would learn to appreciate the little things in life like water,” she recalled.

“Regimental training teaches you how to follow rules. You will be trained as a leader,” she said. “We have rules for everything. Kung anong nakalagay sa schedule, kung unsa ang dapat himu-on, yun lang ang himu-on,” she explained in mixed Cebuano and Tagalog.

A fiery initiation

On the fourth year at the PNPA she said that they were given the freedom to choose the field that they would want to be involved with. “I can’t see myself with the PNP so I chose the BFP,” she confessed.

For three months Virtudes was trained at the Fire National Training Institute (FNTI) in Cavite to become one of the best firefighter in the force after which she was stationed in Las Piñas for three months.

“One month pa lang ako sa Las Piñas may tatlong sunog kaagad. The most challenging was the second fire which was in a squatter’s area. Mahirap siya kasi maraming bahay na nakaharang kailangan pa naming umakyat sa isang building dala-dala ang hose. It took us four hours to extinguish the fire,” she fondly recalled.

Not a hindrance

She confided that being a woman was not a hindrance for her to finish her training both at the PNPA and at FNTI and even in fulfilling her duties now that she is a part of the Bureau. “Maybe the greatest challenge is on how to effectively handle people so that you would be able to achieve your mission,” she said. “It depends on how you deal with your people. You have to meet halfway. You have to listen to your people so that you would know what would be the best approach to take and if you have new ideas you can slowly inject it to what your people are used to doing,” she added.

Gender friendly

Virtudes said that because the BFP is family oriented the Bureau is ideal for women who wanted to be a part of the force. “You will have enough time for your family and we have many activities. Now we are implementing the seven-day mode of activities where everyday we get to do different things like athletics and training upgrades,” she said.

Currently Virtudes handles the training of new recruits in the region. “Our training here prepares them for tougher trainings at NFTI. I am proud to say that our recruits, after undergoing their training here no longer find the training at NFTI that hard,” she proudly stated.

Asked how she keeps fit, Virtudes said that she runs with her recruits every morning and does 500 sit-ups everyday. “I am also careful with what I eat,” she admitted. “You have to keep yourself fit so that you won’t have a hard time. The fire coat itself is very heavy because it’s made up of three layers, and then there’s the hose,” she said.

Virtudes said that the come on of being a firefighter is the excitement that comes with the job adding that every time she hears the fire alarm she gets an adrenalin rush. “You would also get to know and meet a lot of people and go to places where you’ve never been before,” she said. “There are a lot of learning experiences and being here is worth it.”