The FireGals Experience Rekindled My Spark

Firefighter Molly Jenkins dives right into the FireGals retreat.

A firefighter confronts burnout and finds renewal in a community built for women on the front lines

There are lots of things you are told when you think about venturing into the fire service, but the lasting effects that lack of sleep can have on your body and mind aren’t exactly at the top of the list.

I’m sure as a new hire we can all recall the advice we were given, and how we were slightly naive to how this career would affect us. But it’s hard to shake the thought process of, “That won’t happen to me,” or, “Fragmented sleep? No problem! I can just nap and that will make up for it.” I was certainly one of those naive people. I had realistic expectations and an awareness that my life was going to be impacted by the obvious variables of what we see, hear, or smell. What I wasn’t prepared for, however, was the toll of sleep — or lack thereof — and the unrelenting sense of being in “fight or flight,” along with the cumulative exhaustion it creates.

The Slow Creep of Exhaustion

Don’t get me wrong, being a firefighter has been one of the most amazing journeys that I continue to have the privilege to be on. However, it has also been one of the most challenging.

I like to think I am a pretty resilient person, but you can only be resilient for so long. For many of us in this career, the shift happens quietly — brain fog starts to feel normal, needing multiple cups of coffee to make it through the day feels normal, and being completely exhausted yet unable to sleep at night (that “tired but wired” feeling) is just a non-negotiable part of the job.

I had reached a point where I started to believe this was simply how all first responders felt — because, in truth, every FR I knew felt the same way. Finding resources seemed impossible, and I could feel myself becoming another statistic on the “negatively affected” side of shift-work studies. Everything was beginning to feel dull and flat, until FireGals came into my life.

Finding a Place to Heal

Through FireGals, I found the space to name my burnout and begin the work of healing. The resources, conversations, atmosphere, and amazing company created an ecosystem so grounding and peaceful that I truly felt like I was “human” again. I felt like I was finally me again. My body had been in fight-or-flight mode for so long that I had forgotten what it felt like to just be. I felt a renewed capacity to take in the world around me, and through my tracking device, I could see my heart rate was the lowest it had been in months. I felt so grounded in my body that I began recalling positive memories I had completely forgotten. There are no words to describe how incredible I felt, and still feel, because of FireGals. To be able to find an experience like this in a world that enforces productivity and movement above all, was incredibly revitalizing.

Hope, Rediscovered

Through the tears on the last day of the retreat, I felt something I hadn’t felt in a long time; hope. Hope that my body COULD heal, and hope that this career wouldn’t take over my life in the negative ways it was starting to. I am truly grateful for everything that Christina Dizon of BioHacked Firefighter and my fellow FireGals have taught me during this life changing experience. I feel as if I found my light again, and I can’t wait for the future FireGals to have the opportunity to experience the same.