Photo of breastfeeding firefighter goes viral

VICTORIA, Australia — An image of a volunteer firefighter breastfeeding her baby has gone viral after being posted on Facebook.

Mirror.co.uk reported that the County Fire Authority volunteer, Angela Joy, shared a picture of her breastfeeding in full uniform beside a fire truck. The CFA post was captioned: “One of the many faces of CFA in 2016.”

Joy’s husband shot the photo after CFA requested images that represent Australia.

“While this wasn’t the iconic koala or gum tree firefighter image, I sent it in,” Joy said.

The post has almost 40,000 likes and over 4,000 shares. Some comments on Facebook support the firefighter, while others attacked the publicity.

“OK, unliking,” Jake Kahlia Lynch commented. “I took breast feeding pictures, too, but they really don’t need to be on the Internet!”

Another commenter said she loved the support the CFA was giving firefighter Joy.

“So fantastic that the CFA encourages you to combine family and firefighting — the best of both worlds,” Elizabeth Wood said. “Such a beautiful picture, you look so proud.”

CFA chief executive Lucinda Nolan said the online reaction had been hugely positive.

“It’s an image not usually associated with firefighting so we wanted to use it as a way to breakdown people’s perception of our workforce and what our organization stands for today,” she said. “The reaction has been overwhelmingly positive, which is what we expected.”

“To me it represented how grateful I am to be a firefighter in the CFA in a more mature Australia working for such a diverse organization,” Joy said.

Some moms have even expressed interest in joining the CFA since the photo was posted.

“One of the comments I saw was a young mum contemplating volunteering with the CFA but wasn’t sure if they’d be supportive,” Joy said. “But after seeing my photo she said she was definitely going to volunteer.

“That makes any negativity associated with this worth it as this mum will go out and save someone’s house one day.”