This is part of a series of stories examining how the lives of firefighters around the world are being impacted by climate change.
By Seb Starcevic
MELBOURNE, Aug 19 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – If there’s one stereotype that volunteer firefighter Katherine Robinson-Williams wants to banish, it’s that fighting fires is a man’s job.
“Firefighters come from a range of backgrounds. They aren’t always men,” said the 25-year-old from the Hunter Valley in the Australian state of New South Wales.
She should know.
Her mother, grandma and sister in law all fight fires, and she expects her baby daughter will become a firefighter, too.
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Robinson-Williams is what Australians affectionately call a “firie”, one of nearly 200,000 volunteers – about 1% of the population – called on to tame blazes alongside full-time firefighters.
Longer and more lethal wildfire seasons that experts say are prompted by climate change has led to a shortage of volunteers in recent years.
“There will never be enough firefighters to protect every person’s door, every person’s caravan, every person’s car, every person’s farm,” said Robinson-Williams, whose day job involves rehabilitating racehorses.
