A London fire crew has made history by having more women than men on shift for the first time in the Brigade’s 150 years.
Blue Watch at West Norwood fire station is made up of five women and six men, with eight on duty at any one time. On Saturday December 12, there were five women and three men on duty.
Currently there are about 300 female firefighters working in London, which equates to around 5 per cent of the workforce of between 5,500 and 6,000. In England as a whole, 4.7 per cent of operational firefighters are female.
With London Fire Brigade having better gender equality than many other fire services nationwide, the team are thought to have been the first predominantly female crew not only in the capital, but in the country.
Watch manager Sally Coxon said: “It’s always good to be involved in something that happens for the first time.”
She added that although diversity in the Brigade has improved, female firefighters still face outdated attitudes from the public.
She said: “We will get off the fire engine and members of the public will say ‘you’re a woman’ or ‘do they let you ride the fire engine?’ A lot of people don’t realise we do exactly the same job as the guys.”
A London Fire Brigade spokesperson said: “We have over 300 women firefighters and we’ll continue to educate and strive for a workforce that reflects the communities that we serve.”
