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Fire Woman: The Extraordinary Story of Britain's First Female Firefighter
The inspiring true story of Josephine Reynolds, Britain's first full-time female firefighter.
When Josephine Reynolds signed up with the Norfolk Fire Service in July 1982 at just seventeen years old, there was no such thing as a firefighter – only fire men. Set against the slate-grey backdrop of early 1980s Britain, Fire Woman is the story of how a young woman brought up in rural Wales coped in the testosterone-fuelled world of the fire brigade, where even today 96 per cent of all staff are male.
In a life packed with incident – where lethal forest fires, escaped zoo animals and unexploded bombs formed a background to the everyday toll of death and disaster – Josephine experienced both triumph and heartbreaking personal tragedy.
Fire Woman also provides a unique insight into the camaraderie that comes with risking your life on a daily basis and stands as the inspiring true story of an extraordinary young woman who took on a man’s world and won, becoming Britain's first full-time firefighter.
When Josephine Reynolds signed up with the Norfolk Fire Service in July 1982 at just seventeen years old, there was no such thing as a firefighter – only fire men. Set against the slate-grey backdrop of early 1980s Britain, Fire Woman is the story of how a young woman brought up in rural Wales coped in the testosterone-fuelled world of the fire brigade, where even today 96 per cent of all staff are male.
In a life packed with incident – where lethal forest fires, escaped zoo animals and unexploded bombs formed a background to the everyday toll of death and disaster – Josephine experienced both triumph and heartbreaking personal tragedy.
Fire Woman also provides a unique insight into the camaraderie that comes with risking your life on a daily basis and stands as the inspiring true story of an extraordinary young woman who took on a man’s world and won, becoming Britain's first full-time firefighter.
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
195 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 6, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
November 21, 2019
Fire Woman: The Extraordinary Story of Britain's First Female Firefighter
J. Reynolds, 2017
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I was twelve years old when our house burned down. We lived at the bottom of a hill in deepest, darkest West Wales [...]. Each night I would lie in bed in my flannel nightie praying that something - anything - would happen. But this wasn't what I'd had in mind.
❀ Cover ❀
Although the cover is relatively simple, I love the little blob of colour in the word 'Fire'. I also really like the picture from Jo they took for the cover. And, on the back are three more pictures of her from her duties. It's nice and helpful to understand her writing and to imagine everything better.
♤ Story ♤
What can I say? The book is telling the story of Josephine Reynolds, who decided to join the Fire Department and became the first female British Full-Time Firefighter. She's describing her education, her private life full of drugs, alcohol and parties, and some of the events she had to join - whether she had to catch a monkey that fled its zoo or to extinguish great fires.
In my opinion, the description of her training and the difficulties she met there was great. I know a lot of the things she did from my own training and I was surpised that already back in the 1980s her fire dept. was really "modern" - they already used "beepers" while even today some villages still need sirens to alert their firefighters.
What I didn't like that much and what wasn't that interesting where the parts about her party-life, about her love affairs and their "abuse" of drugs and alcohol - they even went into actions after drinking alcohol.
♢ Characters ♢
Since there were only real persons, there isn't much to say about them. Only about Jo and I have to admit, I sometimes felt like her. She didn't like the "girlish" lessons at her school and didn't want to go to university like every other. She's kind of a rebell and wants to prove that a woman can also do a "man"'s job.
♧ Setting ♧
/
♡ Overall ♡
I really love this book. It gives me so many impressions of the life as a female firefighter in Great Britain at that time. I was shocked and surprised at the same time, how well or how stupid they managed their work.
What would have also been a good idea: To write more detailled about the different missions/actions she and her collegues hat to do. In my other books about two German firefighters, they focus on describing what they did, how and how they found solutions after the situation got worse. This one was more about the private life of a firefighter. The few moments after an alert came in were described less detailled and were sometimes only a few pages.
The situation has changed a lot since then - it's typically normal that women also join the fire departments, but still I can understand how Jo must have felt during her days; many men still thing that woman shouldn't become a firefighter.
And while writing this review, my next book about a firefighter arrived :'D
J. Reynolds, 2017
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I was twelve years old when our house burned down. We lived at the bottom of a hill in deepest, darkest West Wales [...]. Each night I would lie in bed in my flannel nightie praying that something - anything - would happen. But this wasn't what I'd had in mind.
❀ Cover ❀
Although the cover is relatively simple, I love the little blob of colour in the word 'Fire'. I also really like the picture from Jo they took for the cover. And, on the back are three more pictures of her from her duties. It's nice and helpful to understand her writing and to imagine everything better.
♤ Story ♤
What can I say? The book is telling the story of Josephine Reynolds, who decided to join the Fire Department and became the first female British Full-Time Firefighter. She's describing her education, her private life full of drugs, alcohol and parties, and some of the events she had to join - whether she had to catch a monkey that fled its zoo or to extinguish great fires.
In my opinion, the description of her training and the difficulties she met there was great. I know a lot of the things she did from my own training and I was surpised that already back in the 1980s her fire dept. was really "modern" - they already used "beepers" while even today some villages still need sirens to alert their firefighters.
What I didn't like that much and what wasn't that interesting where the parts about her party-life, about her love affairs and their "abuse" of drugs and alcohol - they even went into actions after drinking alcohol.
♢ Characters ♢
Since there were only real persons, there isn't much to say about them. Only about Jo and I have to admit, I sometimes felt like her. She didn't like the "girlish" lessons at her school and didn't want to go to university like every other. She's kind of a rebell and wants to prove that a woman can also do a "man"'s job.
♧ Setting ♧
/
♡ Overall ♡
I really love this book. It gives me so many impressions of the life as a female firefighter in Great Britain at that time. I was shocked and surprised at the same time, how well or how stupid they managed their work.
What would have also been a good idea: To write more detailled about the different missions/actions she and her collegues hat to do. In my other books about two German firefighters, they focus on describing what they did, how and how they found solutions after the situation got worse. This one was more about the private life of a firefighter. The few moments after an alert came in were described less detailled and were sometimes only a few pages.
The situation has changed a lot since then - it's typically normal that women also join the fire departments, but still I can understand how Jo must have felt during her days; many men still thing that woman shouldn't become a firefighter.
And while writing this review, my next book about a firefighter arrived :'D
November 22, 2025
Quick read. Not completely about the life of a firefighter but definitely shows the amount of grit and determination this woman had. She, like many others, has paved the way for female firefighters. It shares a lot of about her personal life too, which is fun because she’s just a gal having a good time. I didn’t really love the ending, but so it goes.
June 18, 2022
Fantastic!
March 10, 2018
'Listen,' I said, pulling on a t-shirt. 'It might be OK to behave like a moron in the Foreign Legion, but this is 1986. Women have rights. Or didn't that memo reach whatever cave you crawled out of? I've never been bossed around by any man, and I'm certainly not going to start with a sexist idiot like you.' (171)
When Reynolds joined the fire service at the age of seventeen, it wasn’t because firefighting was her dream—it was just a promising job that would get her out of the classroom and into the action. She didn’t realise that she’d be making history as the first female firefighter in Britain.
Reynolds does talk about some of the attention she received, positive and negative, for being a female firefighter in the 80s. Lots of press, especially in the early days, and things like a firefighter telling her that his wife didn’t want him to talk to Reynolds. (She doesn’t go into detail about why, but I’m left with the impression that the wife thought that a female firefighter would only be trying to get into male firefighters’ pants…and I am slightly flummoxed, but I suppose that’s the point.) For the most part, though, Reynolds doesn’t go deep into that—the way she tells it, her crew took her entry into firefighting in stride—so either she had good fortune/good coworkers, or a bit of gloss has been applied.
Mostly, instead, the book is a brief look at firefighting and being young and carefree in the 80s. Coming off duty and going dancing. Drinking and dating and losing loved ones to accidents. The book ends on a somewhat startling note that leaves me wondering whether Reynolds has plans to write a second book—. I’m curious about what came next.
When Reynolds joined the fire service at the age of seventeen, it wasn’t because firefighting was her dream—it was just a promising job that would get her out of the classroom and into the action. She didn’t realise that she’d be making history as the first female firefighter in Britain.
Reynolds does talk about some of the attention she received, positive and negative, for being a female firefighter in the 80s. Lots of press, especially in the early days, and things like a firefighter telling her that his wife didn’t want him to talk to Reynolds. (She doesn’t go into detail about why, but I’m left with the impression that the wife thought that a female firefighter would only be trying to get into male firefighters’ pants…and I am slightly flummoxed, but I suppose that’s the point.) For the most part, though, Reynolds doesn’t go deep into that—the way she tells it, her crew took her entry into firefighting in stride—so either she had good fortune/good coworkers, or a bit of gloss has been applied.
Mostly, instead, the book is a brief look at firefighting and being young and carefree in the 80s. Coming off duty and going dancing. Drinking and dating and losing loved ones to accidents. The book ends on a somewhat startling note that leaves me wondering whether Reynolds has plans to write a second book—. I’m curious about what came next.
July 4, 2020
Josephine Reynolds is one of the first female firefighters and the first in Britain. Somehow she was able to navigate the male dominated culture of the fire service with grace and humor. It was especially enlightening to get to know her as a person in these pages. Jo shares her struggles and invites us into the world of firefighters for a rare look at firefighting, the British way.
January 4, 2022
Loved this book. A detailed memoir about Firefighter Reynold's younger years, Jo lets you into her life and mindset as she set out to be a firefighter. She never set out to break glass ceilings, but she broke many and paved the way for many female firefighter behind her. The book definitely leans more towards life memoir than firefighting tips, but a great read nonetheless.
June 5, 2022
I loved reading it. And how at some point I clocked on to the lyrics as the title. I think some women now would want to do that.
Read
May 16, 2025it was a very inspiring book
May 16, 2025
very good book and very interesting of how it was done when she started i would recommend it to everyone.
January 23, 2022
This review first appeared on my blog - https://nsfordwriter.com - on 25th April 2022.
I finished this book in 24 hours! It was an interesting and easy read. The author, Jo, joined the fire service in 1982 aged seventeen and is described as Britain’s first female firefighter. She was also the first woman qualified to drive a fire engine.
The book describes Jo’s early life and career, focusing on the gruelling training and what it was like to be the only woman on the team in Norfolk. There are plenty of anecdotes, both funny ones and sad. I enjoyed the writing style, which was friendly and authentic. Even the chapter titles were enjoyable, being named after apt songs, such as ‘Under Pressure’, ‘Road to Nowhere’, ‘Making Plans for Nigel’, ‘Shock the Monkey’ and ‘Every Breath You Take’.
I hadn’t heard of the author before I read the book. I’d assumed it would cover a long and progressive career in the fire service, so I couldn’t help being disappointed when the memoir stopped in 1988 when Jo left the fire service to go adventure travelling. An afterword would have been good, to let us know a little of what happened to her since… or maybe she could write a sequel? I would definitely read it.
I finished this book in 24 hours! It was an interesting and easy read. The author, Jo, joined the fire service in 1982 aged seventeen and is described as Britain’s first female firefighter. She was also the first woman qualified to drive a fire engine.
The book describes Jo’s early life and career, focusing on the gruelling training and what it was like to be the only woman on the team in Norfolk. There are plenty of anecdotes, both funny ones and sad. I enjoyed the writing style, which was friendly and authentic. Even the chapter titles were enjoyable, being named after apt songs, such as ‘Under Pressure’, ‘Road to Nowhere’, ‘Making Plans for Nigel’, ‘Shock the Monkey’ and ‘Every Breath You Take’.
I hadn’t heard of the author before I read the book. I’d assumed it would cover a long and progressive career in the fire service, so I couldn’t help being disappointed when the memoir stopped in 1988 when Jo left the fire service to go adventure travelling. An afterword would have been good, to let us know a little of what happened to her since… or maybe she could write a sequel? I would definitely read it.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews