Memoirs of a Female Firefighter: Part 2
Community Fire Safety
Diversity at Last
My first promotion in the Fire Service was into a day role in Community Fire Safety.
This was the first time in five years I worked with women again, so it was a bit of a relief after being surrounded by so much testosterone for so long.
This department was wonderfully diverse as it was our job to get out into our local community to provide education on fire safety, so the team skills and talents had to reflect the needs of our community. In the city that we served, there was a big mix of ethnicities, different languages, religions, people with varying special needs, including hoarders and children who played with fire. We saw it all in this department.
There were some fantastic characters in this team, Tina and Kaz, the disability advocates, Luna, Naz, Suzie and Jan who served our ethnic minority communities, Denise and Paul, the older person advocates and various others. We visited individuals in their homes who had been referred to us as being vulnerable to fire, did group talks, attended community events, fairs, did interventions with arsonists. Our presence was requested all over the place.
