Tasmania's fire service is trying to shake off the stereotype that firefighting is men's work.
Just 15 of Tasmania's 300 career firefighters are women.
Emma Weitnauer has spent the past decade in that minority.
She remembers dealing with sexist attitudes from male colleagues early on in her career.
"I was struggling with a piece of equipment when I first started and an old firefighter who'd been on the job for many years came over and said 'Huh, that's why females shouldn't be firefighters'," she said.
But Ms Weitnauer said she had seen the workplace culture change as more women had signed up.
"Over the years, the guys that are on shift are getting used to the girls being there and can see that we're capable, just as capable as they are," she said.
"If there's anything that one of us can't do or even one of the men can't do we all help each other out."
The former ironwoman is training to be a leading firefighter, and will lead the first crew to have three female members on the four-person shift.
"It's great, I'm learning a lot, I'm learning a lot about myself and how capable I am," she said.
"I think that a lot of the women out there think that [firefighting] is too physically difficult for them but that's really not the case.
"You do have to keep yourself in good physical shape, keep strong and healthy but we work together as a team, we don't do any heavy lifting on our own."
More work to do
Tasmania Fire Service welcomed its first female fire fighter in 1994.
The chief officer Chris Arnol said one of the reasons numbers remained low in the service was that very few women applied for roles, compared to men.
During the 2019 recruitment process, 79 women applied, compared with 645 men.
The Fire Service has been showing more women fire fighters in its marketing material in the hope of encouraging more female applicants.
The chief admitted a lot more work was needed.
"I don't think we've done enough to look at the gender balance," he said.
"Our numbers are still low so we've got to do something about that.
"This sort of idea that it's a male thing to be a firefighter is sort of disappearing now when they see the women are equally as capable to be great firies as the men are."
Mr Arnol said he wanted to see more women in the service.
"We know that when you have in your workplace a diverse organisation, it brings different qualities to your workforce and the attitudes that you have," he said.
"The work is in front of us though and all fire services across the nation have this challenge so it's catch-up time from when it was really just male-dominated recruitment."
'Not a boys' club'
At 24, Nicki Graham is Tasmania's youngest firefighter.
"I wanted a job that was fast-paced, physical, hands-on, rewarding," she said.
Ms Graham said while the workforce was very male-dominated, it was not a boys' club.
"Everyone is really welcoming, we all get along really well, I just think of them as my brothers, or my dads," she said.
"They do talk about cars a fair bit, which gets a bit old, but for the most part they're not too blokey."
Cassie Muir-Wilson has just returned to work from maternity leave.
Her full time load means working four days on, and four off.
"I was looking forward to coming back," she said.
"It's a really good balance even now on shift, the way the shifts work you get a lot of family time as well."
Mr Arnol said he saw more flexible arrangements, like part-time work, being offered in the future.
"I see it as an option going forward, I see a lot more flexibility in our workplace being an option, for sure," he said.
