Bronnie Mackintosh from Fire and Rescue NSW empowers teenage girls by teaching them firefighting skills
A lack of diversity in the fire and emergency services drove Curl Curl resident Bronnie Mackintosh to establish Girls on Fire, a program that teaches valuable skills and promotes resilience. It also encourages girls to consider a career in the emergency services.
With the help of the Australasian Fire Authorities Council (AFAC), she ran a pilot program in 2018, organising a camp for teenage girls.
Girls on Fire has grown to meet the demand, having held around 40 camps across NSW, Victoria and Queensland. They vary in length and are free for participants, funded by grants.
In June 2023, Bronnie ran a rainbow program for all genders on the Beaches as part of World Pride celebrations. She has also run a program at Freshwater Senior Campus as part of their Life Ready school curriculum.
“A guy I met told me ‘You’d be an awesome firey’.”
Bronnie Macintosh, founder of Girls on Fire
Bronnie was a late starter at 32 years old when she joined NSW Fire and Rescue. She worked in corporate health and person training and in journalism before she found her calling.
She’s had a varied work life, but it was when she worked for the local council on the Beaches in parks and garden maintenance, that her path changed course again.
“A guy there told me, ‘you’d be an awesome firey’, and then he introduced me to someone, so I applied,” says Bronnie. “That’s why there’s a need to plant the seeds for young girls in high school. They don’t know it’s a viable career path for them.”
Bronnie is currently a station officer at Fire and Rescue NSW at Lane Cove.
“I wish I had known about this job earlier because it’s perfect for me. And I was always really heavily involved in sports. I played 10 years of rugby for Warringah,” Bronnie said. “So being a firefighter is similar to that whole team sport.”
Girls on Fire teaches valuable skills.
Girls learn about fire management.
Many go on to a career in emergency services.
Many of the young girls go on to volunteer or make a career in firefighting, however they still face challenges.
“There’s still a lot of cultural issues in our fire services. There’s still backlash, there’s still negative cultures probably in some areas, in some pockets of the job,” she said.
“I’m really passionate about empowering young women to be confident and strong mentally and in their ability,” Bronnie says. “And to have the confidence to know that whatever it is that they do, they can do.”
There’s a significant demand for the programs which teach girls about how emergencies are managed, giving them practical skills and more.
“We show them the physical demands, wearing gear carrying equipment, picking up stuff, using a hose, dragging things, working together, leveraging your diverse traits of your team and your strengths,” said Bronnie. “Sometimes, we’ll get a vehicle in and have them use the big hydraulic rescue tools.”
“We do road crash rescue and plant key safety messages about driving, accidents, getting in cars with other people, making better decisions,” she explained. “We just hope something else sort of lands and sticks.”
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