No women among 16 new Fire Service recruits
(CNS): Sixteen young men, but no women, joined the ranks of the Cayman Islands Fire Service last week after graduating from 18 weeks of basic training. Although a woman holds one of the top posts in the local fire service, it is still a male dominated department. This latest group of recruits had just one woman at the start of training in August but she and one man left before the end for health reasons, according to officials.
The training focused on foundational firefighting skills in domestic, aviation and road traffic collisions, as well as the correct use of breathing apparatus and other essential equipment.
At the graduation event, Chief Fire Officer Paul Walker noted the recruits’ determined participation, ability to keep going when the going gets tough and a genuine commitment to learning, which saw the new firefighters successfully complete the intensive and challenging fire and rescue course.
“I feel a real affinity with these 16 young men here today as I can still vividly remember the excitement, the sense of achievement, the relief, the pride I felt at my fire and rescue graduation 31 years ago. As we welcome them as colleagues to the fire and rescue family, I can say you have chosen your profession well. A profession of service, a profession of helping others in their time of need, a profession that will challenge you as individuals, as teams and a profession where you will make lifelong friends.”
The recruits will now be placed on a 12-month developmental probation, during which they will further hone their skills in domestic and aviation firefighting. It is anticipated that they will sit their first in a series of international recognised qualifications in the first quarter of 2021.
During the graduation, Home Affairs Minister Tara Rivers said the new recruits would share a special bond forged through their shared experience in training that would carry them through the inevitable challenges ahead. She added, “The unshakeable brother and sisterhood you have joined goes far beyond this graduating class, and indeed Cayman’s borders.”
Rivers said improvements had been made in the service in recent years in line with the government’s commitment to develop a world class fire service. “Every team member at every level has the ability to contribute to the continuing success and development of the organisation.”
She said that the Senior Management Team, led by CFO Walker and Deputy CFOs Roy Charlton, Tina Ebanks and Brevan Elliot, “have fostered an environment where success is supported and celebrated and there are opportunities to advance and lead for everyone”.
Category: Jobs, Local News
So
Big Mac has proven that men are not only more powerful but also willing to prove it.
So who gonna make the sammiches?
the fact that you can get ridiculed for stating men in general are more physically capable to handle labor intensive and dangerous work is baffling to me. do you people not read anything related to science? the most egalitarian countries have a disproportionate amount of men in STEM jobs and women in more nurturing job (emphasis on most not all). stating the obvious is not reducing anybody, you need a nurse as much as you need a carpenter. The title of this article is something I would expect from CMR not CNS.
When you are looking for the BEST person to fill a position, other adjectives are irrelevant. Whether black, white, asian, male, female, straight, gay, etc., when any of our loved ones finds themselves in need of the fire service, you want to know that person is there because he or she is able to do their job and save lives.
CNS you have really lost the plot.
There were also no British expats, or Filipinos in this class.
There were also no former prisoners.
There were also no former medical students or accountants.
There were no work permit holders.
Are women more important than these other categories?
Your answers is YES! You damn right women are more important !
Well from the last situation who could blame any woman .That convicted joker still running around here on our streets living off government assistance and still committing criminal offences whilst doing it! He should not be out on our streets!
Oh these are sadly correct times indeed when an incendiary story like this isn’t inundated with concern about the shortage of hot island women.
And may I just say that those uniforms are fabulous. Totally festive and gay.
Kudos to the chief and his administrative “Deputy”.
Fireman. Not firewoman, or foreperson. Come on. Behave ladies.
No women in the class is only a problem IF women wanted to be in but were discriminated against. Most likely, there just wasn’t a slew of women wanting to be firefighters and that is fine!
Women don’t play dominos that much.
The men wouldn’t let them anyway.
There was a female from Cayman Brac in this class, however, she did not make the cut I understand.
What they did the last one?
I guess no women applied except the one who left because of illness. That is how the cookie crumbled- I see no issue really.
and the civils service keeps on expanding….
fire service and the many reports on it performance sums up everything wrong with caymanian work ethic and the civil service generally.
1:18. You must be living in the 1980’s stop the jealously of our world class civil service.
men and women are not equal but should be treated equally.
more women in the fire service will cost people their lives.
men are much better suited for the job.
sorry for the political incorrectness.
men and women are not equal. and ask yourself the obvious question, who would you prefer to carry you(or your child) out of a burning building?
@ 1:08 Whoever was capable to do it. Misogynist idiot. You’re part of what’s wrong on this island regarding attitudes to women.
You are playing percentages that you cannot win.
Just accept facts and stop being truculent.
Or else what? Just like Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men, you’re dying to say it, aren’t you?
Some jobs are just more suitable for men.
1:05 I know photos can be deceptive but I doubt that several of the men in that picture would pass the physical requirements for my local fire dept. We have a height/weight standard that quite a few women have passed but at least four of them wouldn’t.