Dräger demonstrates Engineering for Diversity with Women in the Fire Service partnership event

Dräger, an international leader in the fields of medical and safety technology, celebrated its partnership with Women in the Fire Service UK last week, reinforcing its commitment to equality of opportunity, improved representation of women in the industry and how Dräger is designing equipment fit to meet the challenges of an increasingly diverse workforce in the fire service.

Hosted at South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, 46 delegates across 16 Fire and Rescue Services, Hazardous Area Response Teams (HART) and National Ambulance Resilience Units (NARU) took part in a number of presentations and workshops, and testing the latest Dräger technology.

The PSS AirBoss, Type 4 Nano Cylinder, HPS Safeguard and UCF FireCore were some of the technologies on display, with some of the delegates being able to experience using the new Arwain Firefighter Tracking and Location technology in action for the first time at an open event. Keynote speakers from Salford University, the East Midlands Fire Investigation Dog team, South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue, and also Draeger Safety UK discussed the impacts of heat stress, firefighter physiology, nutrition and fitness, focusing on how engineerng design is a safety critical issue in respect of workforce diversity. These issues can only be supported by new technologies. Other subject areas addressed included the health and wellbeing of a Firefighter and providing a workshop on an introduction to incident command.

Marketing Manager at Draeger Safety UK, Elizabeth Milward, says the event was a great success: “Providing an environment to further and encourage representation in the Fire and Rescue Service, and highlighting their achievements in a ‘historically’ male dominated industry is crucial if we are to achieve gender equality in the industry,” she says.

“We were delighted to co-host the event with Women in the Fire Service, and thank the team at South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue for playing such a big part in its success.”