Twenty eight year-old Holly works at a dental practice in Taree and came to firefighting by chance. She received a pamphlet in the mailbox advertising for new recruits at the station and thought it looked like a bit of fun. She initially spoke to members at the station and attended drills to get the feel of the job before the application process. After passing an interview, she was required to complete a stringent physical test which involved lifting heavy objects and reaching 8.7 on the beep test, followed by a two-and-a-half hour medical examination.

In the next step in her training, Holly is off to Armidale for a two day course followed shortly by another four day course. The intense structure of training will require her to extinguish fires in a hot cell, practise rescuing dummies in a blackout cell, abseiling and working with foam to extinguish oil fires. Through ongoing training she will also attain her truck licence and become a HAZMAT operator.

By the end of February Holly will be a fully qualified retained recruit and will be on call 24 hours a day seven days a week along with 14 other retainers on the squad in Wingham.

When asked what it feels like to be the only female on the team, Holly says she doesn’t feel any different. The only perk is that she has a change room all to herself while the other men have to fight for space to put their uniforms on. Otherwise, Holly will be treated the same as everyone else.

“I’ve never done anything like this before, it’s very exciting but a big challenge,” Holly said.

Deputy captain, Mark Pedron is thrilled to have Holly on board and says she will “bring a different set of skills to the station. When she is qualified she will do as much as anybody else.”

He is pleased Holly has been able to get a feel for the environment before embarking on recruit training which costs approximately $8000 by the end of the process.

Mark explained that one of the most rewarding but hardest parts of being a fire-fighter is learning to trust the person next to you and working with a team.

The rescue side of the firefighting role is what Holly is looking forward to most and she can’t wait to experience the adrenalin rush of training and her first callout.