‘Women don’t have what it takes to be firefighters’ – the opinion of one fire chief.
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How long do you think this guy would hold onto his job in the US?
In Cyprus, fire service acting chief Marcos Trangolas doesn’t believe a woman’s place is in the fire station. In an interview this week, the man in charge of about 900 firefighters, including 64 women, says he wants to limit the number of women in the fire service because they can’t meet the physical requirements for the job,
The quote in our headline was taken from the headline for the story on the website of Cyprus Mail:
According to Trangolas, a firefighter must be able to carry 33 kilos of weight, which is the total burden of carrying the uniform, helmet, oxygen and shoes to fight fires in apartment blocks.
Another reason to carry out regular tests on members’ physical conditions is the fact that the biggest health problem faced in the service is heart attacks.
Trangolas maintained that reducing the number of women hired was not discrimination, since the mission of a firefighter demanded they be in top physical condition.
According to the article, few woman firefighters already working for the Cyprus Fire Service are fighting fires.
The most recent stats on the Cypress Fire Service I could find came from 2005 at CyprusNet.com:
It employs in total 662 officers, full time fire fighters and 14 citizens, as well as 120 part-time (volunteer) firefighters that serve the Rural Fire Stations. It maintains a fleet of approximately 115 pumps, 110 fire and rescue trucks, 6 platforms, 6 emergency vehicles, 20 auxiliary vehicles and 5 ambulances located across the island.
