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From secretary to chief, this Pacquet firefighter is officially a Rising Star

When Pacquet, N.L.'s longtime fire chief resigned in 2016, Jodie Matthews says her group was in shock.

He had been fire chief for almost two decades, she said, leaving only because the fisherman couldn't spend any more time in the volunteer position. There weren't any apparent successors.

"None of them wanted to take on the workload of being chief," she explained. "I mean, they seen how stressful it is, the paperwork, the computer work, the phone calls, the applications."

"At first, I don't think I wanted to either. But I knew [the] job."

Almost three years later, Matthews has taken over the duties, and the secretary-turned-chief has been officially recognized as a rising star, with her inclusion in the National Fire Protection Association's 2019 Rising Star program.

My notebook and pens are all ready to take notes. - Jodie Matthews

She is one of three participants in Canada to get the scholarship, which gives her a trip to this week's NFPA Expo in San Antonio, Texas.

Garrett Barry/CBC
Garrett Barry/CBC

"I'm terrified to fly, and I've only every flown twice and this is my very first time leaving the country. So it's a little nerve-racking, but it's an honour to be selected as one of Canada's rising stars."

From secretary to chief

Matthews spent a decade working alongside former chief Collin Greenham, but she didn't have formal firefighting training when the position came her way in 2016.

I stepped up to the plate. - Jodie Matthews

But she was the Pacquet Volunteer Fire Department's secretary, so she knew how to handle phone calls and applications, and that was enough to propel her to the job, at least initially.

"Town needed somebody for the holiday season, during Christmas and New Year's, so I stepped up to the plate. And January of 2017, they elected me as fire chief."

She had only just begun active firefighter training, a two-day defensive course, a few months earlier. But within the first year of being chief, she had completed six more courses, including training for fire inspection, breathing apparatuses and vehicle traffic management.

Garrett Barry/CBC
Garrett Barry/CBC

Pacquet's town manager, Janet Sacrey, said Matthews's promotion was, in part, due to Pacquet's small population, and in part due to her ambition.

"She had aspirations to go ahead further with what she was doing, and she saw where she could probably make a difference," Sacrey said.

The town manager says Matthews arrived on the scene just as Newfoundland and Labrador's provincial government was demanding changes and improvements in the fire department.

One of those was proper documentation for checks and maintenance on the breathing devices.

"[She] was very positive with it, and moved on it very quickly, and met a lot of the requirements we were lacking," Sacrey said.

Garrett Barry/CBC
Garrett Barry/CBC

As chief, Matthews says her workload at times has reached 30 to 40 hours — "filling out applications, incident reports, inspection forms, making phone calls to other fire and emergency service members."

That's on top of her paying job, 30 hours a week as a personal-care attendant.

A family affair

She commands a department of 13 firefighters, who are all men. One of them is her father.

He's probably one of the ones who don't want to listen. But he do. - Jodie Matthews

Elvis Norman said he had quit the department once, after a 30-year stint, but got brought back in when his daughter took over. And he says she holds her own.

"She'll give you a piece of her mind. She can tell you where to go to, if you don't listen: out through the door," he said. "She got her own way when she was small. What difference is it now?"

Submitted by Jodie Matthews
Submitted by Jodie Matthews

Matthews says there's lots of family connections in the small-town fire department, but they never get in the way.

"He's probably one of the ones who don't want to listen. But he do.… When he's in that office, he's not my father. I mean he's no different than the other 12 firefighters."

Garrett Barry/CBC
Garrett Barry/CBC

She's the only woman in the department, and the first woman to hold the job of fire chief in Pacquet.

She says the gender breakdown doesn't bother her, but she is continually trying to recruit women from the community to join her on the force.

"Even this day and age, I mean, with all the female we have in the community, I can't convince one of them to join because 'this is a man's job. I'm not strong enough. I can't do this, I can't do that.'

"They don't understand, you know, whether it's a man's job or a woman's job, it's teamwork. Nobody stands on their own."

Garrett Barry/CBC
Garrett Barry/CBC

Bringing it back

The NFPA Expo runs Monday to Wednesday, and the organization says there will be more than 120 different education sessions throughout the conference.

Laura King, the association's public education co-ordinator in Canada, said she met Matthews at training sessions in Newfoundland and Labrador, and believes that as chief of a small-town fire department, she can take a lot of benefit from the American conference.

"My notebook and pens are all ready to take notes," Matthews said. "I'm hoping that I'll be able to bring back a lot of information, a lot of knowledge to my fire department, to other fire departments in other communities in Newfoundland."

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