'You can still fight fires with pink hair': Tyne & Wear's top female officer on battling blazes and stereotypes

She's a trailblazing woman whose work proves that firefighting definitely is for girls.
Assistant Chief Fire Officer (ACFO) Lynsey McVay is the first woman in Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service (TWFRS) to do the job, and the first operational principal officer in the service - that is to say, the first to make to her level after starting out as a firefighter.

There's still a lot more change that's needed: in 2020, just 7% of UK firefighters were female, while 96% of all firefighters were white.
That's something Lynsey hopes to help tackle, by encouraging people who might not see themselves as potential firefighters to consider applying.
"I think there still is this real perception that firefighters are big, strong, white, males, essentially, and that's all - it is a societal thing, it's a generational thing," she said.


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