The inclusion of gender diversity in brigades for preventing and fighting forest fires is a way of promoting the empowerment of women in the integrated management of fire in the Brazilian context. Since 2021, the National Center for the Prevention and Combat of Forest Fires - Prevfogo sought to encourage the inclusion of women in the Federal Brigades Program, both by adjusting the physical tests that all brigade members to be hired by the Program undergo and by training brigades exclusively with female volunteers, as an incentive for women to participate in integrated fire management activities. In this sense, this study sought to analyze the participation of women in the composition of contracted and volunteer brigades from 2019 to 2022. For this, it adopted a quantitative methodology, with data collection through documentary and bibliographical research. From the information gathered, it was found that between 2016 and 2019, women represented, on average, 3.5% of brigade members hired by Prevfogo. In 2021, 36 women and 1,555 men were hired. In addition, in 2021, Prevfogo formed the 1st exclusively female indigenous brigade, with 27 members. Thus, in 2021, women accounted for 3.89% of brigade members formed by Prevfogo. In 2022, 55 women and 1,691 men were hired and four female volunteer brigades were formed, totaling 100 female volunteer brigade members, accounting for 8.39% of female members. The data indicate that there was an increase in the number of female brigade members over the years, corroborating the global movement for gender inclusion.

Purpose: The aim of this study was analyze and compare the exercise demands of female and male wildland firefighters during real deployments. Methods: Eighty-one wildland firefighters (WFFs, 19 females and 62 males) took part in this study. Over three consecutive wildfires seasons, WFFs’ exercise intensity and physiological load (PL) were analyzed based on HR during 42 wildfires. The HR response was categorized into 5 intensity zones according to different percentages of the maximal HR: 50-60, 60-70, 70-80, 80-90 and 90-100%. The PL was calculated from the integrated volume and intensity relative to the 5 HR intensity zones. Results: No significant (p>0.05) main effect of sex on any of the dependent variables analyzed was found. The time spent in the different HR-based exercise intensity zones were 57.7 ± 72.3, 55.5 ± 53.7, 53.5 ± 31.9, 31.5 ± 18.7 and 8.6 ± 7.1 min in 50-60, 60-70, 70-80, 80-90 and 90-100%, respectively. The mean PL was 423.1 ± 278.8 AU or 126.3 ± 46.9 AU·h-1. Conclusions: The present data support the idea that female and male WFFs perform the same physiological effort during wildfires suppression.
This work has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement No 883315.