While others were seeking cool shade or the air-conditioned indoors, 17-year-old Corina Duiker packed on about 75 pounds of fire-resistant gear on Thursday and helped battle a wall of fire swirling above cars and piles of wooden pallets at the Eugene Springfield Fire Department headquarters in west Eugene.

After professional firefighters set up four burn areas, where stacks of pallets were set free to burn hot and high, Duiker and more than a dozen other female teenagers took turns navigating a fire hose around the smoking stacks and doused the flames with water.

Duiker, of Eugene, grew up wanting to be a paramedic but never had the opportunity to test what fighting fires feels like.

“I was scared,” she said. “There was no way I was getting close to the fire, but I fought my fear.”

In its fourth year, the Young Women’s Fire Camp provides a close-up look at fires and firefighting for about 15 high school girls. Fire Capt. Jean Woodrich, who wanted to start an all-female fire camp after visiting a conference in Chicago five years ago, said the camp allows the participants to step outside of their comfort zones, tackle fears and learn how to lead their peers.

While Woodrich would like to create a similar camp for teenage boys, she thinks a female-only camp is more beneficial.

“(The females) would hang back if they thought they were going to get beat by the males,” Woodrich said. “This way, everyone is on the same level, they all have to go first at some point, and they aren’t too worried about competing with one another. It’s more about teamwork.”

Duiker and some of her newfound camp friends even came up with a confidence-boosting pose — think Wonder Woman with fists on hips — that would help them overcome their fears.

In addition to putting out fires, campers received a lesson from police officers this week in self-defense. Duiker said she was surprised by how easy it can be to apply simple tactics in order to get away from someone who grabs you by the arm — and was happy to demonstrate.

“All you have to do is pull away quickly, while twisting your arm toward their thumb,” Duiker said.

Professional firefighters and staff members who help during the camp said the change that some campers go through is remarkable considering that the camp is only five days long. Even some parents have commented on how much more independent their daughters are when the camp is over.

“It makes me feel fearless,” said Dezarae Helferty, 15, of Eugene. “I’m doing things that I never thought I could do before, and if someone (is dying) on the street, I can save them with CPR because we learned that the other day.”

The fire department hopes in coming years to expand the camp, which is now limited to about 18 participants. Woodrich said she hopes the camp inspires girls to become better leaders, but also that it will act as a recruiting tool to lure some of the campers into a fire and emergency services career.

Between 2008 and 2012, only 3.8 percent of firefighters were women, according to the National Fire Protection Association.

“Lots of girls are smart, athletic and interested in the medical field, but this is a hidden career and many don’t grow up seeing themselves as firefighters,” Woodrich said. “Unless they have a family member (who was a firefighter), they don’t see (female firefighters) in the media, on TV or too often in real life.”

Follow Ian on Twitter @MrCampbell17 . Email ian.campbell@registerguard.com .