Burning ambition!
How homeless girl of 15 transformed her life to become one of the most senior women firefighters in Britain
AT the age of 15 Sabrina Cohen-Hatton was living on the streets and selling copies of the Big Issue.
But now she is one of the UK’s senior firefighters, a published author and an authority on decision- making in the emergency services with a PhD to her name.
Dr Cohen-Hatton, 36, has told her inspiring story in a book The Heat of the Moment.
She said that, while her period of homelessness was ‘pretty unpleasant’, it gave her the ‘grit and determination’ she needed later in life.
She was able to escape her life on the streets after two years by using the money she made selling the Big Issue to rent a flat in the Welsh Valleys.
Dr Cohen-Hatton then joined the fire service and began working her way up through the ranks. She is now deputy assistant commissioner of Surrey Fire Brigade, making her one of the most senior woman firefighters in the UK.
Dr Cohen-Hatton, who lives in Weybridge and is married to husband Mike and has a daughter Gabriella, aged nine, is reluctant to say why she ended up on the streets in Newport, South Wales – leaving home shortly before her 16th birthday.
However, when asked about her mother in a recent interview with The Guardian she admitted: ‘We still have a difficult relationship.’ Her father died when she was nine. Dr Cohen-Hatton said of her past: ‘I spent a long time trying to put a lot of it behind me.
‘When I broke out of it, it was important to almost invent someone else, so that people didn’t have any preconceptions. I spent a long time trying to forget about it. It was terrifying sharing it.’
At 16, she turned up for her GCSEs with dyed red hair, a pierced lip and a dog. She was required by her head teacher to sit her exams in a wig for infringing uniform policy – an incident that was reported in the national Press.
Despite achieving an A star, six As and three Bs, she left school.
Reflecting on her period of homelessness, she said: ‘It was pretty unpleasant. But equally there are things that came out of that time that were positive.
‘One of those things that I talk about in the book is about how that life shaped what came later. When I did my PhD I worked relentlessly. I knew that no matter how difficult my life was, it was not as hard as that life. It gave me that grit and determination.’
She joined the fire service in Risca, Caerphilly at 18 – becoming the first woman firefighter at the station and in the division. She said: ‘I had spent time on the streets living my worst possible day, and in the fire service you are extremely privileged because you are helping others when they are having their worst possible day.
‘It was through being homeless that made me look at how I could help other people.
‘It was tough but it was so worthwhile. One of the things I’m really passionate about is changing what a firefighter should be. It was maledominated then and it is now.’
In 2010 she embarked on a parttime doctorate in behavioural neuroscience at Cardiff University, beginning her research the day she gave birth.
The research investigated how incident commanders make lifecritical decisions at speed amid a storm of information. Her book develops these ideas, putting the reader at the centre of life- ordeath situations.