CALGARY -- Three-year-old Anya Vandezande wants to be a firefighter when she’s older but first she had to figure out if girls can become one.

“The whole week before Halloween she was dressed up as a firefighter in her costume, going around,” said her mother Julia.

“Lots of people kept calling her ‘fireman,’ and she asked me ‘are firefighters only men? Can girls be firefighters?’”

Anya says there are a few perks to being the first on scene.

“Saving cats from tall trees,” she said.

Julia Vandezande then approached the Calgary Fire Department, asking it to send photos of its female firefighters.

“I thought I wonder if there is any fire department that would maybe get (us) one photo of a girl firefighter, that could kind of show her, that they can be women,” said Vandezande.

A social media post by the firefighters association spread across the country and then, the world.

Soon, visual evidence of female firefighters was pouring in.

“We’ve had over 100 photos from coast to coast in Canada,” said Matt Osborne, vice-president of the Calgary Firefighters Association.

“We’ve had pictures as far as wear as Croatia to Melbourne Australia, (with) a women firefighting crew.

Australian female firefighters

40 women

The association says there are currently about 40 women who are firefighters in the city, of about 1,400.

The association hopes that this story can help shed light, and see more women want to fight the flames.

Osborne says there is a stigma attached to firefighting surrounding strength, but he says that is not the case.

“Break the stigma,” said Osborne.

Female firefighter

“Women are incredible firefighters, that yes, women can be firefighters and making sure that young girls like Anya know that and all people know that.”

For Vandezande, she says this was an eye opener for  Anya, and hopes others can follow.

“I just hope lots of little girls are following along and showing fire departments with multiple women, and whole groups of them,” said Vandezande.