Dr Sabrina Cohen-Hatton, the new chief fire officer of West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service, doesn’t look like your average firefighter. In case you hadn’t noticed, she’s female, and, at 5ft 1in, quite petite at that. She’s also mixed race, which, again, doesn’t fit the traditional Fireman Sam profile. But that’s just the way she likes it because she has made it her mission to combat stereotypes in the service.
“If you ask people to imagine a firefighter, they picture some tall, dark, hunky calendar model, but the reality, I’m afraid – and I say this with love – is that I’ve seen more firefighters who look like Ed Balls than Tom Hardy,” she says, breaking into a laugh.
“Joking aside, it does have an impact because, selfishly, as a senior fire brigade leader, I want the best of the best.
“Being a firefighter is tough, and I need to be able to choose the best out there, not just the best of the best from those who might think about it because the stereotype appeals to them.”
Sabrina is only 36, but she’s already one of the most senior firefighters in the country. As a deputy assistant commissioner in the London Fire Service at the time of the Grenfell disaster, it fell to her to debrief crews as they came off duty the next morning, and deal with the aftermath. She also helped oversee the fire service’s response to the Westminster and Finsbury Park terror attacks.
Since then she has become something of a troubleshooter, drafted in to fight fires in the metaphorical sense. Her previous posting was as interim deputy chief fire officer at Surrey Fire and Rescue, and now she’s crossed the border into West Sussex – both troubled services that have received a drubbing in a recent internal inspection report.
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
TAKE YOUR TIME
Dean Edwards’ new cookbook features delectable recipes that you can slow cook or stick in the oven. Here’s a selection of the best
Decorative art
Not simply functional, treat your walls like an extension of your personality
ON THE FRONT FOOT
The rugby legend took the reins at Sussex County Cricket Club in 2017, rekindling his love for a sport that first won his heart on the village cricket fields of North Yorkshire
NAKED AMBITION
In the 1980s, Christine and Jennifer Binnie partied with Boy George and Marilyn and bared all as performance art collective The Neo-Naturists. Now they are working together to gain the recognition they feel they deserve
ROCKET MAN
Astronaut Tim Peake has come a long way since growing up in Westbourne and attending Chichester High School for Boys: 248 miles above Earth, to be precise. But, he says, life on the International Space Station has a lot in common with family caravanning holidays
Revolution man
Lewes’ most famous resident Thomas Paine may be the greatest propagandist who ever lived. But how did a humble customs and excise officer ignite the touchpaper for revolution in not one but two countries?
THE DIARY
17 exciting things to do this month in East and West Sussex
All in a day's work
Meet Tim Dummer, who has helped keep Midhurst’s Cowdray Estate shipshape for an impressive five decades
My favourite Sussex
Bruce Fogle is an author and a vet with a practice in London who has lived in West Sussex with his wife, the actress Julia Foster, since 1989. He recently became president of RSPCA Mount Noddy near Chichester
10 OF THE BEST Meat-free restaurants in Brighton and Hove
Brighton is often rated one of the most vegan-friendly cities in the UK. What these restaurants prove is that plant-based food doesn’t have to be puritanical – at all of these places you’ll find big flavours and a desire to push the envelope
