Helen

When my husband joined the fire service I was very jealous, but also inspired. So I started bombarding him with questions about his training. It helped me to decide that it was what I wanted to do too. I already knew a bit about firefighting as I had previously worked at the airport and was part of the fire crew, which is how I met my husband. He supported me to join up. So did my family. They even went to an open day at their local station so they could understand more about what it is I wanted to do.

I watched my husband go through training so I knew roughly what to expect. But it was still more challenging than I thought. It took a few days to get used to the discipline the trainers expect from you and it is tough mentally and physically - but also a very enjoyable time. There is great team spirit during training, we all help each other and worked together because it’s not a competition everyone wants you to succeed.

I didn’t realise that there’d be such good team spirit, and it continued after the training. I was very apprehensive as I was the only female FF at the station, but I needn’t have been. As soon as I joined I was made to feel the same as everyone else. And soon my attention turned to waiting for my first ‘Shout’. I was very excited and nervous as I waited for the bells to go. When they did the nerves we replaced with a compete rush of adrenalin. Although, it was a bit of an anticlimax…you see my first day as a Probationary Firefighter was on Christmas Eve, and my first shout was on Christmas Day. We had to deal with a person who thought it would be a good idea to burn the packaging and wrapping paper from their Christmas presents in their back garden.

However things quickly got a lot more serious. A few days later I had to attend a fatal house fire. It really brought home the harsh reality of the role. Some firefighters can go 30 years without being called to a fatal house fire – I experienced it very early on. Dealing with the people who had been affected by the accident is always difficult. Its essential you can keep calm and reassure them, especially in some very traumatic circumstances.

When we’re not on ‘shouts’ there are daily training drills and lots of community work – visiting residential areas; schools and care homes fitting smoke alarms and giving fire safety advice. There are lots of laughs as well, its unlike anywhere else I have worked; we are all very close and care about each other. I think this is because we are faced with dangerous situations on a daily basis. We also do a lot of fitness work in our spare time as some incidents can last up to 6 hours, there is lots of lifting equipment too. So it’s a must to join the gym if you are thinking of applying.