Melksham welcomes first female firefighter in over 10 years

A Melksham woman has become the first operational on-call female firefighter to join the town’s crew in more than a decade.

Maria Davis, 27, became an on-call firefighter in 2023 and served at Radstock Fire Station for two years before transferring to Melksham after moving back to her hometown.

She described joining the fire service as a “blessing” and hopes her experience will encourage more women to consider becoming firefighters.

She said, “It is a job I have always wanted to do. It is a very rewarding job physically and mentally.”

Maria, a former student at Melksham Oak Community School, works full-time as a 999 control operator for Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service and is an on-call firefighter at Melksham Fire Station on Semington Road.

She said, “We’re here to help the community and you are there on someone’s worst day. As a call-handler I can help someone on their worst day by trying to keep them calm with my voice but by being a firefighter, I can be there to help them physically.”

Maria is the first woman to complete firefighter training and become operational at Melksham Fire Station in more than 10 years, after a previous female recruit joined the station but left before completing training.

Women make up around 9% of firefighters nationally, with the profession still heavily male dominated.

Maria said, “When I was growing up, I was quite small and petite but I would speak my mind. I was told by a lot of people that I can’t do something in the majority of jobs I have had. Usually, it was by someone just looking at me going, ‘You’re too small to be a firefighter.’

“I first applied in 2019 and around that time I was very, very tiny. Lots of people would tell me it wasn’t for me. I did the training and proved them wrong.

“It can be quite a demanding job physically because you do have to carry heavy equipment weighing around 25 to 50 kilos. People think that you just turn up with a truck and squirt water on the field but there are a lot of hoses that you have got and portable pumps. There is also a lot of background knowledge that you need as well, like learning about breathing apparatus, entering burning buildings and how to extricate people from cars.”

Every couple of months, Maria attends female-only exercises where she meets other female firefighters from multiple services to carry out drills.

She said, “There are no men there at all. It’s really nice, there are about 20 of us who take part in the exercise. It is a very male dominant job, so it’s nice to be with other women who are in the same boat as you.

“For any women who do want to be firefighters, I would say, just do it. Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do anything because you will be very surprised at what you can do physically and mentally.

“I attended Melksham Carnival and I had a few people say, ‘Oh my God, it’s a woman firefighter.’ It was nice to hear that the town I grew up in recognises that there is a female firefighter.”