Captain Allyson Reich, VFRS's first career female firefighter, is retiring after 20 years of service (photo by Liam Verster/Vernon Matters Staff)

By Liam Verster

20 Years of Service

Vernon’s first female firefighter retires

Apr 30, 2025 | 11:18 AM

The first female firefighter to serve with Vernon Fire Rescue Services is leaving the force.

Allyson Reich is retiring Wednesday, April 30, after 20 years with the fire department.

She was the first female career firefighter hired in Vernon, and was the only woman working with VFRS for nearly that entire time, which she said did draw some attention.

“Interestingly enough, when I started, I didn’t really understand or appreciate the sort of [significance] of that title,” Reich told Vernon Matters.

“There was certainly a lot of interesting looks from people as I’m driving the fire truck down the road over the years.

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“It’s so weird. I’ve been trying desperately to think of the best way to sort of summarize it, but it’s gone by so fast and it’s been such an incredibly rewarding career. I’ve met so many amazing people, not only the people that I worked with and have grown to admire and love and respect, but, as a firefighter, you have the opportunity to reach so many people, from little kids when doing different public education or public events, to helping people out on truly their worst day of their life. To be able to have some of them come back and give you a hug and say thank you is, oh my gosh, how do you summarize that?”

Reich said there was very little awkwardness in her role as the sole female firefighter in Vernon, saying she felt like she had a department full of brothers for the past two decades.

“I still remember the first day when I walked into the building and many of the guys that I was working with that day all basically had to kind of look up to me because I was literally taller than them all [at 6-2],” Reic said.

“I kind of guessed that, judging by their look of approval on their faces, that ‘Well, she’s bigger than I am, so she can probably do the job.'”

“Obviously I had to work very hard, like all new recruits do and probationary firefighters do, but I’m hoping, and I’m pretty sure I can say safely, that I did garner their respect with the work ethics that I brought. Being a female in a male-oriented work environment can be a bit challenging; it brings a different set of challenges to the job, but ones that I embraced and my colleagues embraced too, so together we really found a way to make it work and work well. I know I have different strengths and bring different strengths and capabilities to a situation that my male counterparts maybe not necessarily can bring, but together I think we made a really good team.”

Since working with VFRS, only one other female firefighter, Kaitlyn Green, has joined the ranks. However, she was hired in June of 2024 and is a probationary firefighter at time of publication. Reich said they did not get to work together much, but it was good to see another woman at work.

“It’s been wonderful, and in fact I wish [Green and I] had more time to work together and my sincerest hope for her is she’s not alone for the entirety of her career and, which I know she will be incredibly amazing at. That she be an incredible role model for the next generation of firefighters to come, be it male or female,” Reich said.

While working with VFRS, Reich was instrumental in starting the Firefighter for a Day program, which allowed high school girls to visit the downtown fire station and learn what it takes to be a firefighter and try out all the equipment including going up in the ladder truck and using the hose from a fire engine. The program ran just for female students in the first three years, but was expanded to run on two days so high school boys could also get a day.

That program will continue to be run by Green and another firefighter after Reich’s retirement.

“If you want to call it a legacy piece, awesome. It was just something that I thought I would start and was happily surprised at how well it’s been received over the years, especially with this year being the fourth year,” Reich told Vernon Matters.

“Knowing that there’s two of our members that are looking forward to carrying it on, I look forward to seeing where they go with it, and I’m really happy to have been a part of a little bit of Vernon’s history in that regard.”

Over the past few years, Reich attended post secondary classes and earned a Masters Degree in Counselling Psychology, and has started up her own agency, Resilient Steps Counselling. She will focus on delivering services for first responders and people experiencing post traumatic stress disorder, including firefighters.

“Through my own mental health journey, because of the critical incidents I faced as a firefighter, which are not uncommon to firefighters or any emergency services personnel. I remember sitting and talking to a psychologist who, judging by the plentiful degrees this person had, there was no doubt in my mind that this person was very academically smart, but just didn’t understand our job in the way that felt really organic and authentic,” Reich told Vernon Matters.

“In that moment, even though I was in need of professional assistance to help work through whatever I was going through at the moment, I remember putting myself in the shoes of any of my male counterparts. Typically, men aren’t the first people to put up their hands and ask for help, and I remember thinking that if any one of them were sitting where I was sitting, they might not advocate for themselves or want to ask for help, and I kind of got the seed planted in my mind that ‘Hey, I bet I could do this.'”

Reich added ]the focus of this next chapter of her life “is about thought fullness and attention and holding space for our emergency responders that are so desperately in need of a safe place to work through all of the things and challenges that our job brings to the table.”

There will be a retirement party for Reich at the fire station in downtown Vernon Wednesday, after which she will be taken home for her last ride in the fire engine.