More female firefighters needed

AS a retired grass-roots firefighter with 35 years service, I wish the current Avon chief fire officer Mick Crennell all the very best for a long and happy retirement.

Notwithstanding this, it is perhaps pertinent to remember that Mr Crennell was engaged on a temporary basis in August 2017 and permanently took over in September 2018, following severe criticism in the Home Office’s damning report by Dr Craig Baker (July 2017).

This branded the service an

“old boys’ club” with “deep-seated cultural issues” and “endemic” bullying. All of this was circa

2017/18 and time will only tell whether he has been successful in eradicating what I suspect is still a predominantly male culture.

During my own service, I witnessed the sharp end of what some might politely describe as a challenging ‘boys will be boys’ culture.

These events were to inform the contents of my degree dissertation entitled: ‘The Uniform Culture Of The Fire Service: A Critical Inquiry’. This was produced in 2001 and criticised many of the dehumanising psychological behaviours which obviously still prevailed when Mr Crennell took over some 17 years later.

I understand only 10% of firefighters in the Avon Fire &

Rescue Service are female and their minority is alluded to in the conclusion of my dissertation. Namely: “One can only hope that the fire service starts recruiting both intelligent/sensitive men and women who could see their roles as being androgynous. Perhaps future studies might look beyond the social masculinity debate to the biochemical hard wiring of the brain in attempts to identify who they are?”

The very low number of female firefighters in the British fire service suggests that such investigations are long overdue. Perhaps this is just the time for the AF&RS to grasp the nettle of equality and encourage applications from senior female fire officers for the post of operational chief fire officer.

R L Smith Bristol