Calls for more women to join Norfolk Fire Service

Jennie Schamp (R) with female recruits to Norfolk Fire Service

A female firefighter is encouraging more women to join a county's fire service.

Norfolk Fire Service currently has the lowest proportion of female firefighters in the country.

Jennie Schamp, 48, joined the service 25 years ago and now works as group manager.

She said: "You genuinely are a part of something special and you really do come home feeling that you've made a difference every day."

Jennie Schamp joined Norfolk Fire Service 25 years ago

Ms Schamp was one of just two full-time female firefighters in the county when she started her career at the Bethel Street station in Norwich in 1999.

There are currently 38 women serving in Norfolk out of a total of 660 firefighters - which is 5.7%.

The national average of women firefighters, according to the latest Home Office figures, is 8.7%.

A growing number of new recruits in Norfolk are women, making up 36% of new recruits on the last full-time firefighter course.

But Norfolk is still lagging behind other parts of the country when it comes to attracting women to the job.

Ms Schamp added: "I think all fire and rescue services have an issue recruiting female fireighters.

"It's around making sure that females understand that it's a job for them and it could be something that they would really want to do.

"There are people walking around Norfolk today who may not have been there had I not been part of the team that I was part of."

Norfolk County Council is planning to spend £8.5m over the next three years to update some fire stations.

As part of the work, facilities at some centres will be upgraded to make them suitable for female staff.

"We need to represent the communities that we work in and obviously our communities are made up of pretty much 50% women," Ms Schamp said.

"I think it's really important that when you go into schools and you do fire education, that those little girls can see female role models that are within the fire service and believe that you know that that there is no glass ceiling.

"That it is a job for them too."

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