Donington firefighter gets pay-off from 'massive decision' to give up teaching

A former music teacher from Donington is seeing her “massive risk” of changing careers to become a firefighter pay off in more ways than one.

Amy Bristow (28) has been one of the #unsung heroes for Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue during International Control Room Week which ended on Sunday.

Before leaving her job at Boston Grammar School in July 2019, Amy became one of only 2,231 women firefighters in England (according to Home Office figures from October 2019) after applying to train as a retained (on-call) firefighter in July 2018.

Since then, Amy has also become a control room operative at the joint fire and rescue/police control room in Lincoln which she described as getting "the best of both worlds".

She said: "I was still in teaching when I started my retained firefighter training in July 2018.

"Then in April 2019, there was a job advertised in our control room where we take the emergency calls, mobilise fire and rescue crews, and alert the ambulance station.

"My watch manager suggested I should apply and I thought it would be very different from teaching.

"But I also thought that I had nothing to lose and it sounded quite appealing because I could have more time to be a retained firefighter than I could with my teaching.

"I got the job in the control room and started working there in July 2019, moving onto a new system in March this year when we started sharing our control room with the police, which is interesting in itself."

Amy's rapid rise as a firefighter, completing her development training in a year, something which normally takes two to four years, has enabled her to drive fire engines, handle high-volume water pumps and also train as a co-responder, giving immediate medical treatment to casualties in an emergency.

She said: "I took a massive risk when I left my teaching job because I didn't know what was going to happen.

"But I really enjoy every part of the fire service and so I wanted to understand it in more details.

"Being able to respond to the incidents from the control room is a dream job as you get the best of both worlds."

John Scott, watch manager at Donington Fire Station, said: "We're very proud of Amy and she's come on leaps and bounds from when she first started as development firefighter.

"Amy has progressed, with the aid of Spalding Fire Station, and she's worked really hard in a short period of time to complete her development folder.

"She saw the job as a wholetime control operative, was successful in applying for that and she's not looked back.

"Amy has done us proud at Donington Fire Station and she's proved what women firefighters can do."

. Donington Fire Station is looking for people interested in training as an on-call firefighter.

The opportunity is open to anyone who lives or works in Donington and can be on call between 7am and 5pm.

For more information, call 0800 3580 204 or email recruitment@lincoln.fire-uk.org