Doncaster Belles' boost as football club spends day in fire service hot house

One of the country's top women's football sides has spent the day with the fire service, in a bid to boost its chances during the climax to its debut super league season.
Action between Sunderland Ladies and Doncaster Rovers BellesAction between Sunderland Ladies and Doncaster Rovers Belles
Action between Sunderland Ladies and Doncaster Rovers Belles

Women’s Super League side Doncaster Rovers Belles spent the day experiencing life as South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue firefighters at the service’s training base in Handsworth, Sheffield.

The squad’s day included donning breathing apparatus inside SYFR’s cutting edge realistic fire training building and performing firefighting drills.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The aim of the day was to boost the Belles teamwork skills, but also to highlight firefighting as a potential career path for women and other diverse groups.

Belles goalkeeper Nicola Hobbs combines her role with a full time job as a firefighter in South Yorkshire and is currently working in the service’s community safety team.

Nicola said: “The Belles are really grateful for the support of the fire service in putting on this day, which was a brilliant opportunity for us to develop our teamwork skills before the vital last few weeks of the season.

“But our players are also aware of their responsibility as role models to women in our local community, and that responsibility extends to making them more aware of career paths some may not have previously considered.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“Perceptions of the fire service as being a white, male dominated organisation are changing and here in South Yorkshire we have already come a very long way, with firefighters from underrepresented groups including many women on the front line at fire stations all over the county.

“Through training days such as this we hope to inspire more women to think about a career as a firefighter which they may never have considered before.”

Although the fire service is not currently recruiting for full time firefighters, there remain opportunities for on-call firefighters and the service is keen to raise awareness of firefighting as a career amongst diverse groups should it recruit for frontline roles in the future.

If you are a woman and want to find out more about a career with the fire service, you can register your interest by visiting www.syfrrecruitment.com

Doncaster Rovers Belles play Manchester City tonight (Thursday August 11) at 7.45pm at the Keepmoat Stadium.