Fire service names engine after female pioneer

3 hours ago

James GrantNorthamptonshire

News image — The fire engine is called Cyd after Cynthia Phillips (pictured), one of Northamptonshire's first female firefighters

Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service A woman in a grey suit jacket with three medals stands next to a red fire truck. — The fire engine is called Cyd after Cynthia Phillips (pictured), one of Northamptonshire's first female firefighters

A fire service has named a cadet fire engine after one of its first female on-call firefighters.

To mark International Women's Day, Northamptonshire Fire Service honoured Cynthia Phillips MBE, known as Cyd, during a ceremony at its headquarters.

The engine's name was chosen by the Northamptonshire Emergency Services Cadets, who said they wanted to recognise Phillips' lasting influence on the service and future firefighters.

She said: "I'm overwhelmed and absolutely honoured. It's something very special. The fire service was a very big part of my life and I absolutely loved the job."

"I fell into the fire service by accident, to be honest. There weren't any women firefighters that I knew of in 1981."

Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service A split image containing two photographs - on the left is a woman in a navy blue fire jacket with a yellow helmet. She is standing next to a red fire truck with her arms behind her back. On the right is a woman in a pale blue shirt and black tie sitting at a desk. — Cyd Phillips served as a firefighter in Northamptonshire between 1981 and 2002

Phillips was one of the first women in the country to serve as a retained firefighter when she joined the station in Irthlingborough.

Before joining, she had been working at the post office in Irthlingborough when the fire station's sub-officer came in following an incident in Wellingborough.

After hearing him describe the call-out, she asked if she could join.

"If he'd said 'it's not a job for a woman', I wouldn't have thought twice about it, because that's what it was like in those days," she added.

'Wonderful moment'

Phillips later became a wholetime firefighter in Corby in 1984, when there were very few women in the profession.

In 1989 she became the first British woman whole-time firefighter to complete a course at the Fire Service College.

After more than two decades of service, she retired in 2002 and was awarded an MBE in the 2000 New Year's Honours list for services to the British Fire Service.

Northamptonshire's Chief Fire Officer Nikki Watson said: "To mark International Women's Day, it's so important we recognise the contributions of women like Cyd who opened doors for so many of us over her remarkable 20-year career.

"It was such a wonderful moment to be able to see her unveil her name on the cadet fire engine with our future generation of emergency services watching on."

Follow Northamptonshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.