SAN ANTONIO -- The San Antonio Fire Department hosted their first CrossFit Partner Workout for women in the community at the San Antonio Fire Department Training Academy on Saturday morning.

  • Part of "Hero Like Her" Campaign
  • SAFD has about 90 women in the force
  • National average is about 4 percent

The event was part of their Hero Like Her Campaign, which empowers young women who are intersted in becoming firefighters.

"This is my first cross fit competition,"  Crossfit Athlete Amber Medrano said. "I'm doing this competition with my crossfit fellow athletes to get stronger overall and get an experience of what it is to be a firefighter as well."

Amber participated in the first Hero Like Her Partner Workout of the Day.

"We have 5-inch hose here and I just wanted to get them hands on with some of the equipment we use," Kourtney Pena of the San Antonio Fire Department said. 

Pena said SAFD has about 90 females in the force.

"So four percent, which is the national average, so we're right on par with the rest of the nation," Pena said.

As a six-year veteran firefighter and on the recruiting team, she hopes to spark some more interest.

"We're just showcasing our females in the fire department," Pena said. "We're not necessarily trying to get more women to join but we just want them to know that being a firefighter is an option for them."

With a challenge like this, SAFD wants women to know that they can become a firefighter. 

"I'm interested in [being] a firefighter one day," Medrano said. "I'm a believer in female empowerment so I believe that females should be able to do the same things as males can, we should be able to run and lift as heavy. We should be able to have the same jobs as men have."