F is for F***: The Fearless Female Fire Fighters

I must confess in the very first line of this post that this was not my first choice for letter “F”. I originally wanted to write about “Fearless Female Fighter Pilots”. But to my utter dismay, India is still to get it’s “Female” fighter pilot. The reason I read about the same was even more disheartening and de-motivating.
 "As far as flying fighter planes is concerned, it's a very challenging job. Women are by nature not physically suited for flying fighters for long hours, especially when they are pregnant or have other health problems,'' said ACM Raha. SourceA major hindrance is that it takes over Rs 13 crore to train a single fighter pilot, with the huge investment being recovered over 13-14 years of active flying. "Women fighter pilots may get married; have children, disrupting our tight flying schedules. Fighter flying requires very high level of physical and mental fitness," said an officer. SourceAs they say, “it’s all in the head”, the authorities and respected officers must give it a really deep thought. A simple, straight forward, yet an awesome blog post might help all – “women-fighter-pilots “.
Never the less, I was determined to find the female fighters and I stuck gold when I thought of one of the most under-rated respectable jobs – THE FIRE FIGHTERS.The very first line of WIKIPEDIA about Women in Firefighting says – “Firefighting was formerly an all-male profession.” We need to re-read the third word. Read it loud and clear – “FORMERLY”. Not wasting any more precious words, let’s meet some of the commendable ladies from our country.

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Meenakshi Vijayakumar joined the Tamil Nadu Fire and Rescue Services -- TNFRS -- as a divisional fire officer. She has many firsts and only to her credit. She is the only woman officer in field operations in India. She is one of the first woman fire officers in India, to qualify as the Divisional Fire Officer. She is the first Indian fire officer to have won medals for India in the World Fire Fighters, held in Korea (2010) and Australia (2012).She is the first Women Fire officer of India to have led an all men contingent in Republic Parade in Chennai Marina in 2005.Information and Image Source

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Priya Ravichandran, the present divisional fire officer, Central Chennai City was one of the first female fire officers in Tamil Nadu. Priya also lead the Republic Day parade Contingent for two succession years - 2008 and 2009. Information SourceShe was also severely injured during one of her operations when a fire broke out in Kalasahal Heritage Structure. She received 40 percent of burns while she was leading a team of around 150 firefighters, 15 fire tenders, 30 water tenders and two sky lifts. Unfortunately, one of her firefighter had to bid adieu to world during this operations while one more received critical injuries and survived in the same operation. News Source

Image Sources: Pic1, Pic2(Top), Pic3(Bottom)

Harshini Kanhekar created history by taking admission in the only institution in India for fire services – National Fire Service College, Nagpur. She was the first ever female student and yes she had no idea about this fact. She graduated from the college in 2005 to become the ‘First Female Fire Engineer in India” and joined ONGC (Oil and Natural Gas Commission) as a fire and security officer.She has one of the best answers to the odd questions – “I don’t think there is anything ‘manly’ or ‘womanly’ about a job”. Her words should be written in gold and bold when she says – “It is a myth that women can’t take as much physical strain as men.”

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Fabulous Five at Mumbai Fire Brigade: Kavita Gurukul, Kanchan Rathod, Varsha Budhvant, Lata Rathod and NIrmala Ingle were appointed on Wadala Fire Station in Mumbai in January 2012 and became the first women fire fighters in the city.

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Century from Rajasthan: The Rajasthan government recruited 155 female fire fighters in current year (2015). According to Jaipur's Chief Fire Officer Dinesh Verma, “…if women are in the army and stationed at the border and are ready to fight our enemies, then they can surely be encouraged to fight fires." News and Image Source
Dear Ladies, please accept my sincere thanks and gratitude towards your commitment and dare to dream. The following image says it all – well done.

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This post is written as a part of April 2015 A to Z Challenge. My theme for this year is Women In A to Z Professions. Click at the link to check other professions women have excelled in and their respective links.