Firefighting has always been seen as a man's job, with hot, smoky conditions, gruesome car wrecks, huge fire engines and macho locker-room banter, writes Rebecca Smith.

But four women serving among 15 men at one Oxfordshire station are proving they can do the job just as well.

And Oxfordshire Fire Service is aiming to recruit another 33 full-time women firefighters by 2009 to meet new Home Office guidelines.

There are currently only two women working full-time in the county out of a force of 235. Part-timers number 20 out of 360. Acting sub-officer Doreen Jackson, 46, is a grandmother and has been a retained - or part-time - firefighter in Faringdon for more than eight years.

She says: "We are treated exactly the same as the men now but when I started I felt I had to prove myself and push forward a bit."

Now Doreen, of Marlborough Gardens, Faringdon, is on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, even though she works as a sewing machinist when she is not at the station.

"I think more women would enjoy it and surprise themselves. It has been a male-dominated career and it takes a while for women to break through." Doreen's station officer William Law agrees: "We don't have women and men firefighters here, they are all just firefighters and all do the same job. They all wear the breathing apparatus, go on first-aid courses and driving courses.

"Over the years it has always been seen as a man's job but there has never been a reason for women not to do it.

"Everybody has got a family to think of. It may be that women find it harder because of children."

Helen Belcher, 28, of Lechlade Road, Faringdon, has a ten-month old baby, Courtney. She is on call for up to 100 hours a week as a firefighter, mainly on night duty. "I do look out for myself a bit more now I have got Courtney because I have got to think of her first."

But she adds that working around childcare should not put women off.

Sarah Priest, 22, of Bennett Road, Faringdon, works in a supermarket when she is not on duty.

She has just passed her emergency fire advanced driving test and can now drive the fire engine on "shouts".

"I wanted to join the Army but it was taking so long to get in I came here to look around and loved it. You do see some horrible things and it does stay in the back of your mind, but it is your job so you get on with it. There is counselling there if you need it, but we are a team and support each other." Becky Rimmer, 22, of Maple Road, Faringdon, works as a fleet sales administrator for Hartwell Ford in Oxford.

She says: "It is something I want to keep doing. Even if I get married I don't think I will stop being a firefighter. It is all equal and the men treat us the same."

Postwoman Angela Aldridge, a part-time firefighter at Bicester, adds: "It was just as difficult for the men when I joined as it was for me but we all get along fine. I just wanted to do something different and I find the job really satisfying."

Story date: Saturday 19 February

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