First female officer in 145 years

Amy Little has broken new ground in the Richmond Volunteer Fire Brigade by becoming the first female officer in its 145-year history.

After 10 years of training and moving through the ranks, Amy and fellow firefighter Bryan Parks are now station officers.

The role means they are taking on more responsibility in the Richmond brigade, which has a team of 32 that includes just seven women.

Amy, a police officer, was 23 when she joined the brigade and Bryan, a self-employed trader, describes her promotion as “monumental in our history”.

Despite Amy’s own success through the ranks to station officer, the number of women has remained low and it is something both Amy and Bryan would like to change.

“It doesn’t require great physical strength and it’s a lot of fun. You have a big group of friends,” she says. “But it’s hard to keep females. We have seven and it only takes two or three to leave and you’ve halved the number.”

Bryan is also the brigade’s recruitment and retention officer and he says women are good at remaining calm under pressure and that makes them great firefighters.

“They work well under stress and are great at dealing with multiple variables.”

The pair are both drivers and pump operators for the brigade and were invited to attend a station officers’ course in Rotorua a year ago.

The course entailed multiple scenarios that left them physically and emotionally drained, but better prepared for their next step in responsibility.

Last week they were invited to fill two vacant station officer positions, which puts them in charge of the fire-truck crews when they are called out to an incident.

On average, the Richmond brigade gets about 25 callouts a month for everything from structure fires and vehicle crashes to medical events, hazardous materials and false alarms.

One of the biggest challenges for both of them though was the flooding in the town last August.

“Big weather events like these are dynamic in nature and can take quite a bit of time to sort,” Bryan says.

“Supporting distressed homeowners during and after the event was a big part of our response. Some medical events I’ve found pretty challenging and a couple of car crashes have been extremely challenging. The camaraderie and trust of fellow crew members is hugely important during these events.”