One day, they might be called on to rescue a four-footed purr wrapped in fur stuck up a tree, the next they could be cutting through the horrific tangled consequences of another bout of motorway madness, or dealing with the smoking result of a chip-pan left unattended.

The work is nothing if not varied. And demanding.

The level of fitness required may fall short of that needed by either an Olympic athlete or a commando, but you will not find many paunches peeking shyly over waistbands or thighs that could be prefixed with the adjective 'thunder' among the men and women of the Oxfordshire Fire Service.

Increasingly, women firefighters are becoming more of the norm than the exception.

Once, small boys may have dreamed of riding exclusively in the big red machines as an overture of clanging bells and howling sirens announced that a call was being answered.

But in fact the sex of a firefighter has never been an issue. The question of an applicant's gender has never been on the agenda.

And the service's current recruitment campaign actually stresses that it is an equal opportunities employer. Which of course translates simply as 'jobs for the boys and the girls'.

As Oxfordshire Fire Service Personnel manager Vivien Trafford explained, "There has never been a ban on women firefighters. The physical criteria might have been potentially difficult for women but it has never been exclusively a male job. The public perception of firefighting as a career just for men has changed."

This is surely the case, but at the time of writing, Oxfordshire Fire Service had exactly ONE full-time female firefighter on the books. I would like to be able to report who she is and where she is stationed, but the woman concerned is, understandably, reluctant to be seen as one of a kind. Tokenism is both an ugly and a redundant word in this case.

For in terms of personnel and in terms of duty, 'equal opportunity' means precisely that. "You need the same abilities, man or woman," said Mrs Trafford. "You need a level of compassion and a physical capability."

Fitness levels are the big stumbling block. Many are called but few are actually chosen, although Mrs Trafford is quick to point out that the Oxfordshire service has no fewer than 15 retained female firefighters, with more in the pipeline.

"They do have to carry a bleeper when they are on call," Mrs Trafford explained, "although there are ranges of availability. It differs from those who are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to those who are only available in the evenings or at night.

"We identify suitable slots and this varies from station to station and our retained firefighters are contracted to a pattern of cover." At Witney fire station, 30-year-old Karen Spencer and her colleague Sue Dolding, also 30, are two of the retained firefighters of the fairer sex. Karen is usually found at West Oxfordshire District Council, where she works in the audit department. By day, she is retained by the Witney station and in the evenings and weekends, she's ready to respond to any call that comes up in Bampton, where she lives.

"I want to get stuck in and do a good job," said Karen, "and I don't want any concessions. It's never boring, but you do need to keep yourself fit. I accept that I will never be as strong as the men, but I can do just as good a job. We get some good-hearted banter from the lads, but it takes a lot to offend us - and we give as good as we get!" While Karen thinks she has the best of both worlds with her two jobs, Sue, of Manor Road, Witney, is more determined to make the fire service her full-time career. She currently works a supermarket nightshift.

"When I was a child I always rushed out to look when a fire engine drove past," she recalled. "I'm applying all over the country for a full-time firefighting post. There's a huge amount of competition for every position and the training is very rigorous - you can fail at various stages - but I'm determined to make it."

You might expect some inevitable male prejudice concerning female firefighters. Indeed, Leading Firefighter Earle Godfrey, who has been in the job for 19 years admitted he used to be sceptical: "I was against women joining the fire service at first," he said. "I thought they wouldn't be strong enough, but they have proved me wrong. They just keep on going and never turn down a task."

And the call can come at any time. "You have to realise that wherever you are and whatever you're doing, you must be ready to drop it - but it is possible to book time off if you have a special event line up," said Sue. Both women love their fire-fighting careers and have served a total of seven and a half years between them. And Sue's message for any women who may be considering applying to the service is straightforward: "Go for it.

"Being a retained firefighter is a big commitment but it's a really worthwhile job which is very satisfying."

Satisfying, whether you're rescuing adventurous felines, preventing a domestic flare-up turning into a blazing inferno or dealing with the highway wreckage of drivers who have never heard the homily "Better be late, Mr Smith, than the late Mr Smith". And satisfying, whether you happen to be male - or female.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.