WHILE HUNDREDS of male applicants to the Jamaica Fire Brigade (JFB) are flunking literacy tests annually, their female counterparts have been passing in droves.
However, due to a lack of adequate facilities for these women, many have had to give up their dream. Females in the JFB are still in the minority, but they have been "growing steadily" in numbers due to their performance, says Laurie Williams, Acting Assistant Commissioner in charge of Area One.
Since 1995 when female recruits to the JFB were first required to undergo the same physical training programme as the males, all of them have successfully completed the programme. For the first time in 2002, no female survived the rigours of the training.
Acting Commissioner Williams told The Sunday Gleaner that there are only 132 women in the JFB as the facilities to accommodate them in the Fire Service, such as the dormitories and urinals, were not built with females in mind.
As was recently reflected in the female employment figures in the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), "women are employed according to the infrastructure in the Fire Service," says the Acting Commissioner.
Assistant Superintendent in charge of records registry and women's affairs in the JFB, Devalie Charlton, explains that over the years they have petitioned Government to make the facilities in the Fire Service more female friendly but they are always told "that Govern-ment has no money, so we try to fit in as best as possible."
But women have been forcing JFB recruiters to recognise their value to the organisation by outscoring, in many instances, their male counterparts on the standardised tests, explains Super-intendent Charlton.
"The women have been doing better than the men in the academics. It has forced them (recruiters) for each intake each year to take a few women," she said. "We have three District Officers here (at York Park) riding the trucks like the men. You may not see them sometimes because when they are out there they look just like the men and they perform as well."
It was recently reported that far more women than men have been turning up at the recruitment centres for police officers. Police heads noted that many would not be successful, as, although often more qualified than their male counterparts, the training facilities of the JCF, plus the make-up of the force limit the number of women who can be accommodated at any given time.
- Leonardo Blair
Could you be
a firefighter?
Sample questions from
firefighters literacy test.
What is the product of 6 and 4?
Some respondents left answer sheet blank.
Solve the following:
(1/2 X 1/8) divided by 1/4
Some respondents left blank.
Who was the first native Governor-General of Jamaica?
One respondent wrote 'Gary Sobers'.
Name all Jamaica's
Prime Ministers since Independence?
At least one respondent named Pearnel Charles as a former Prime Minister.
