A day in the life of a firefighter

KAREN NICOLL is 45 and is a station manager for Essex County Fire and Rescue Service. Here she explains what happens during her shifts – and how she became a station manager.

Karen joined the fire service in 2001, inspired by her father who was also a firefighter. She’s fought fires, attended chemical spills, collapsing buildings and even rescued pets.

“Growing up, I never thought it was a job for a female,” she says. “But when I was at university a friend joined and I thought I’d try it out.”

“I work a three-week rolling shift system. This includes 9-5 office hours (carrying out my Operational Assurance responsibilities) whilst being mobilised to Operational incidents as required. I also work seven lots of 24-hour shifts across the three weeks, including a full weekend. This means I am available for Operational incidents including outside of the 9-5.

“On a 24-hour shift, I start at 9.00 working “positive hours” until 17.00, I can respond to incidents from my home address outside of the normal working hours (“negative hours”).

“Other shifts can be 9.00 to 17.00 or 9.00 to 22.00 where I am available to respond at any time in those hours. During that shift, I’ll respond to incidents in an operational role and following incidents I help carry out fire investigations.

“I currently work in our Operational Assurance team, where I debrief incidents and lead on findings to promote learning and support processes at incidents.

“As a level 2 officer I’m mobilised to incidents with five or more appliances (fire engines) to take over the incident command or support the incident.

“I can attend other incidents to provide specialist advice (such as Hazardous materials or Water-related incidents). I can also be called to carry out a Tier 2 Fire Investigation where there has been a fire involving injuries or fatalities or high insurance losses.

“I work flexibly so sometimes my lunch break is taken with colleagues at headquarters for half an hour and on other busy days these breaks may be a quick bottle of water and snack at a protracted incident.

“My role is slightly different to those colleagues at station, but generally I will look through previous incidents that may require a debrief, I have meetings with other colleagues to discuss learning and actions and inform on various findings. I take part in various training sessions to maintain my operational competencies. Incidents can come at any time and interrupt the arranged day on a regular basis.

“During a shift, anything can happen. We can be called to fires (domestic and commercial) preventing spread, extinguishing the fire and rescuing anyone involved, whilst also maintaining the safety of crews from the risks involved (such as carcinogenic products of combustion and collapsed structures).

“Then there are road collisions, where we will assess vehicle damage and impact to carefully extricate a casualty, with minimal impact and preventing further injury.

“We get calls to rescue trapped animals, using specialist teams and equipment to lift and stabilise large animals with reduced risk (and even the odd cat up a tree!).

“Then there are chemical spills, where we protect public and environment to reduce the impact of a spill and rescue those involved where required.

“We don’t just cover fire but also water! We provide rescues from water-related incidents. We have specialist teams that can enter fast flowing water to rescue those involved and prevent further risk to the public.

“Another call out can be to collapsed structures. We have specialist rescue teams (including Search and Rescue dogs) to assist both national and international rescue operations.

“In the summer of 2022, our crews worked tirelessly through the heatwave, responding to large wildfires across the county whilst still responding to the other emergency calls with an increase of over 50% of calls through July and August.

“Since then part of my role has been to ensure the service is prepared as much as possible for the same conditions in future.

"Although it is still very male dominated, back in the early 2000s, I was one of very few females. This did not faze me but I definitely had a few barriers to break down.

“I was promoted to watch manager about 15 years ago, I ran my own watch at Clacton Fire station, then 5 years ago I began the promotional process to become Station Manager.

“Essex County Fire and Rescue Service, as well as many others across the country, rely on the commitment of on-call fire crews (those that respond to calls but are not primarily employed by the service). If anyone would be interested in a career supporting their communities, I’d encourage them to look into on-call vacancies at the local fire station.

“It’s a hard job, but I love it!”