Flaming great breakthrough for women!

Cavan County Council employs 98 retained fire-fighters - and, finally, one of them is a woman! Pamela Donohoe from Cootehill is the county"s first female fire-fighter. Pamela, who is in her 30s, took up the position in her home town about a year ago. She has always wanted to be a fire-fighter, but admits it"s a job that wouldn"t appeal to everyone. 'It was something I always wanted to do. It"s one of those things where you can give something back to the community,' says Pamela, who has her own landscape gardening business. 'It wouldn"t be for everyone. You wouldn"t want to be squeamish, and you"d want to have a head for heights, for example. 'It would be quite physical and you"d need to be fit. It"s not for the fainthearted.' Among the areas Pamela has trained in are breathing apparatus use and advanced driving, and people can be surprised when they see her behind the wheel of the fire engine. 'It can turn heads. I drove it in the Cootehill St. Patrick"s Day parade this year, and that got quite a reaction,' she recalls. Like other fire-fighters in Cavan, Pamela has a bleeper and is on call 24/7. So far, chimney fires and road traffic accidents account for most of the incidents she has been called to. Thankfully, she hasn"t witnessed any fatalities. There are ten fire stations and two hose and ladder units in County Cavan"s fire service, which is part of the Water Services & Environment Directorate within the Cavan County Council structure. In 2008, the fire service responded to 622 incidents, which resulted in a total of 718 responses by the brigades. There were no fatalities as a result of fire or smoke inhalation in this county last year. Cavan"s chief fire officer, Noel Burke, agreed that it is significant that the service now has its first woman fire-fighter. 'It was always open to females to apply but there were few applicants previously and Pamela is the first to have been successful,' said Noel, who said that certain attributes are necessary for the job. 'You need to have some physical strength, for things like climbing ladders and wearing breathing apparatus, which is heavy and physically restricting, using cutting equipment and general fire fighting,' he said, but was keen to add that women are every bit as good at the job as men. 'A woman might be better at the job in certain situations,' he said, giving examples such as caring for a casualty in a road traffic accident. Welcoming Cavan"s first fire-fighter, he noted: 'Society has changed and you see women in many jobs that they wouldn"t have been doing 20 or 30 years ago.'