South Yorkshire Fire Service’s first female boss, Alex Johnson, reveals massive changes for women firefighters

She was the only woman there. There were no ladies toilets, and the uniforms were only cut to fit men.

That was the fire service in 1992, when Ms Johnson, who has risen to become the chief fire officer of South Yorkshire, first joined.

Back in those days, around 99 per cent of firefighters were male. Since then, the number of women in the job has risen, but is still only around 6.5 per cent, says Ms Johnson.

She had always wanted to be a firefighter. She grew up hearing stories about her grandfather’s work as an auxiliary fireman during World War Two, and was determined to follow that path, taking her first job in Ilkeston, in Derbyshire, 30 years ago.

Rising up the ranks, she joined South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue in 2018 as assistant chief fire officer, before being promoted to deputy chief fire officer and then chief fire officer. For many years, she has been a member of the executive committee of Women in the Fire Service, a national network which supports the development of women in the fire sector.

In May she is due to retire after 30 years service. She believes having a diverse fire service is vital, and feels it is heading in the right direction.

She remembers those early days well. The first blaze she was sent to tackle was a car fire. Her colleagues gave her the job of turning the hose on the fire to put it out, as it was her first blaze.

She said: “I was excited about going to my first fire, and the rest of the crew let me put it out.

Major church fire

“I remember my first major fire well too. It was at a church in Derby. It was exciting because it was about going to do what we were trained to do.

"The rest of the firefighters were saying we were going to be up all night. They said ‘calm down laddie’, because they called me 'laddie' in those days. It was the first time I’d been into a blazing building.

"It was challenging at first, moving into such an all-male environment. At the start, we didn’t have uniforms that fitted women. There were no women’s toilets or other women’s facilities, and I think I had to prove myself as good enough.

"But that has changed, because having women in the fire service is now normal. Women are seen doing the job, and the facilities are now there.

"The smart formal uniforms now have shirts and trousers that fit women. The protective gear we wear to fight fires is made to fit, so that is not a problem.

Despite the challenges she faced, she fitted right in with her team, and remains friends with her former boss from her first station.

Over the 30 years she has spent in the service, she feels she has met some amazing colleagues who care deeply about both the people they were serving, and each other.

“Back in 1992, I rarely saw another woman firefighter – my work environment was nearly all white males. But since then, support groups have grown for women in the job, and the service has made the job more appealing to women,” she said.

How many women firefighters are there in South Yorkshire?

"We have 40 women in the service in South Yorkshire, which is good. That includes an area manager, station managers and watch managers.

"Some people may think of firefighter as a job for men, but there is much more to it than just brute strength.”

She sees an obvious example of this as being the increased amount of community work undertaken by the fire service. Firefighters who once may have only left the station for emergency incidents now visit people’s homes to provide expert fire safety advice – work which Ms Johnson believes has prevented countless serious fires across the country.

There have also been practical changes in the job.

She sees an example of this as the cutting equipment used to free people from car crashes when the service is called out to serious collisions. Once heavy and cumbersome, with heavy cables, it now has a much lighter power source.

In other ways, she says the job has not changed, describing it as ‘still putting wet stuff on hot stuff’.

And whether male or female, recruits still have to show the necessary level of strength and fitness to get the job. But she accepts that there are some people who would never want to be a firefighter, both male and female.

She believes there is still work to be done, however, in the wider society to show it as a job that is done by both sexes, particularly among children. She sees examples such as dressing up areas, where there are different outfits for boys and girls, where the girls may have nurses uniforms, while the boys areas may have firefighter costumes.

She believes there is still a bias from an early age.

Over a 30 year career, her most upsetting moment was hearing in the distance the devastated cry of a mother who had lost her son in a road traffic collision, immediately after police had broken the tragic news.

But there have been many proud moments. She has memories of successfully dealing with major incidents in South Yorkshire including the 2019 floods and the 2020 Hatfield Moors fires.

But she also fondly remembers her father’s proud chest, puffed out, when she received her 20 years' long service medal, and her grandmother’s reaction to seeing her passing out ceremony after completing training, bursting with pride at witnessing Ms Johnson following in her grandfather’s footsteps.