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the capital’s fire chiefs called on Indesit’s parent company Whirlpool to urgently change its advice to consumers. The company has previously maintained that people could continue to use the affected dryers while they were waiting for them to be modified as long as they were not left unattended
Stepping back in time
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FIRE Correspondent Catherine Levin reviews Fire Woman: the extraordinary story of Britain’s first female firefighter by Josephine Reynolds
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Published on April 6 by Michael O’ Mara books, Jo’s autobiography joins a stable of published memoirs that have Sunday night drama written all over them. Think Call the Midwife and you have got a pretty good idea what you are letting ’S IN ITA BR F O RY O RD IN AR Y ST yourself in for here. TH E EX TR AO HT ER IG EF FIR E AL FIR ST FE M Jo writes in an engaging and accessible style, integrating some of the t is only through Twitter technicalities of firefighting that FIRE came across Jo to good effect. She charts her Reynolds. She is promoting journey from scruffy teenager her first book that sets out her to the world of Thetford Fire early years as a firefighter in 1980s Norfolk. Contrary to initial Station in Norfolk. She manages to balance out the reality of the expectations, this is not a book hard work it takes to get through about how horrendous it was trainee firefighter school and the to be a female firefighter but is first few years on the frontline a fairly light-hearted memoir with a nostalgic view on the of a woman who spent six 1980s. So much so, each chapter formative years in the service is named after a song from the and accumulated several firsts same period. for women along the way. She For those of a certain age, has clearly been deeply affected Jo takes you well and truly back by her experience.
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save lives and we are extremely relieved that, after six months of campaigning by the Brigade, Whirlpool has finally brought its advice in line with our own. “We attend nearly one fire a day involving white goods and strongly believe that if your appliance is subject to a safety or recall notice or you think there is something wrong with it you should unplug it immediately and contact the manufacturer or a qualified repair technician.” The safety notice issued by Whirlpool identified a potential concern with two types of tumble dryer manufactured between April 2004 and September 2015. The affected brands are Hotpoint, Indesit and Creda, Proline and Swan.
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he Brigade’s fire investigators found that a serious blaze that ripped through an 18-storey tower block in Shepherd’s Bush last August was caused by a faulty Indesit tumble dryer which was subject to ‘corrective action’. As soon as it suspected the cause of the fire was the dryer,
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After a six-month long campaign by London Fire Brigade, white goods’ giant Whirlpool has finally told consumers to unplug dangerous, faulty tumble dryers
while they were being used. The Brigade strongly disagreed and urged anyone with one of the models in question to immediately unplug the machine and stop using it. After pressure as part of its Total Recalls campaign, which is calling for a number of measures to improve white goods’ safety, Whirlpool has updated the safety advice on its website www. whirlpool.co.uk/. The company now states ‘if your tumble dryer is affected by this issue then you should unplug it and do not use it until the modification has taken place’. London Fire Brigade’s Assistant Commissioner for Fire Safety, Dan Daly, said: “This change of advice could
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Total recalls: victory for Brigade white goods campaign
8 | April 2017 | www.fire–magazine.com
to Thursday nights, Top of the Pops and when music came on vinyl from the local branch of Woolworths, not downloaded from the Internet. There is enough character development here to really get inside Jo’s world. Her story is one that includes some larger than life characters, but it is not all fun; there is tragedy to punctuate the journey and bring you back to earth. The story arc works perfectly with that Sunday drama in mind. What Jo’s account shows is that sheer grit and determination can get you through and allow you to break into whatever world you want. Jo found herself in a male dominated world that was not used to dealing with women but overcame the barriers she found in her own way. Whether Jo’s experience of being the first female firefighter in Norfolk – and the first woman to pass her firefighter driver’s exam in England – is one that others relate to, or was typical, only those who worked in Service at a similar
time will know. It does have to be seen through a lens of her time. It is unlikely this book will fuel the current debate in the Service about improving diversity. FIRE spoke recently to Dany Cotton, the first female London Fire Commissioner, and she provided an insight into her experience, at the latter end of the 1980s. Any memoir she chooses to write is likely to shine more of a spotlight on the darker side of being a female firefighter. But for now, Jo’s done a great job at entertaining and sharing her experience. Here is hoping she can inspire other young women to take a leap and bring their own determination into the modern Fire and Rescue Service as it forges a new future where they are not the only women on the fire station. Fire Woman: the extraordinary story of Britain’s first female firefighter by Josephine Reynolds is out now in paperback from Michael O’Mara Books £9.99.