My name is Samaia. I'm a firefighter for South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue.
It wasn't something that I’d say I always thought about doing. It wasn't something that I thought was an option for me initially.
And it came about from the more I got into fitness and that side of things, I met more females who do firefighting I know in the industry. And then it kind of became a bit of an idea which grew and grew. And I thought do you know what, this is actually something I could do. And this is actually something that would be a job that I'd love.
I quite like things like problem solving or handling things under stress or like, you know, quick thinking. So that was already something I enjoy. So that definitely came with me. And it applies really like all the time obviously at jobs. And I like that. I like challenging that side of me.
The other side was more like the technical tool side. So we have a lot of tools on the fire engine. I'm not someone who's been in like hands on tools position previously, so learning all the tools, figuring out how to use them all or what they all do.
You only work in like kind of teams of typically 4 or 5 on a fire engine, you know, 6 as a crew or 8 as a crew overall. So how close you work together and how much you know how each other works is so important. You know where all the pieces are going to go and what’s everyone's going to start doing, so, I love working with my crew, and I love it when we get to a job and we just know what needs to happen and we just spring into action.
You usually come down and you do parade at the start of shift where you all stand together as a crew and you go through what’s your role that day. So what you're going to be doing, what's your focus, what needs to happen.
Your gaffer, so whoever's in charge that day, will talk you through what's expected of you, and then what else we're going to do. So what drill we might be doing, where we're going to go visit in the community, and maybe a kind of any sort of home visits or business visits that we need to do that day.
Of course, at any moment the bells can go. So this plan can flip, and that's just how it goes. You just adapt to what needs to happen really.
Do your research, go and visit crews, talk to anybody who you know is a firefighter. Understand what happens on a day to day, and understand both the good and the bad side of the job. You need to really see kind of everything to understand what's going to be for you.
