How a stay-at-home mom became a London firefighter. And loved it

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A trailblazing female London firefighter has hung up her gear for good after almost 30 years on the front lines.

On the verge of turning 60, Terri Taylor is the first front-line female firefighter to retire from the London fire department that has a mandatory retirement policy at that age.

“I love my job, I’m sad to leave it but young people need to take my place,” said Taylor, who was on the department’s technical rescue team. “Our job is one of those you don’t really talk to people about; it’s not pleasant always.

“I’ve seen enough tragedy. This is a job that you should leave at 60; it’s enough.”

Taylor set her sights on becoming a volunteer firefighter after an intriguing tour of the Lambeth fire department during Harvestfest in the early 1990s when she was a stay-at-home mom.

“I thought it would be something to help in my community,” she said of her three years as a volunteer.

After London annexed the region three years later, in order to stay on Taylor had to become a full-time firefighter, with a requirement to pass an exam and a physical.

“I trained and worked really hard,” she said. “My husband and my girlfriend made me a dummy to drag around the backyard. I ran up and down with weights on the stairs. I was the entertainment for the old folks (who lived nearby).”

Taylor even had to return to high school because she hadn’t gotten her diploma.

“I passed the physical and went for an interview. Then, they hired me,” she said. “I was very lucky I didn’t have to go through all the schooling and stuff the kids do now.”

With a four- and six-year-old at home, Taylor became a professional firefighter, thanks, she said, to the support of her husband Stephen Taylor.

“I would have never have gone on this journey without him saying: ‘We can do this,’ ” she said.

One of only a handful of frontline female firefighters at the time, Taylor recalls a story of a captain holding the door of the fire truck open for her as a young firefighter.

“I said: ‘That is so nice, I really appreciate it, but you can’t do that. I have to get into the fire truck myself,” she said.

Also an apparatus operator, Taylor relished her time spent driving the fire truck, calling it “a rush.”

“I feel like I’m in control of it and no one is going to get hurt when I’m driving,” she said. “I’ve driven to an alarm at 30 km per hour on roads because they were icy and nasty. I am experienced enough to know how to drive to conditions.”

For Taylor, who also was a member of the critical incidence stress team, which talks with fellow firefighters following difficult or traumatic calls, the toughest part of her job is when they are unable to save someone from death.

“When they call us, it’s because they want us to save their loved one and sometimes it just doesn’t happen,” she said.  “So, that’s tough to lose people especially when you are trying to save them.

“But a lot of times we do save them. I have had a couple of saves where people were dead and we brought them back. That was great.”

While there were few female front-line firefighters when Taylor started out, today there are about 20 out of about 360 London firefighters.

“I think its important people know that things have changed,” she said. “Women in the fire department are welcome.  But we still have a ways to go. Things are changing and need to continue to change. We’re getting younger people and they look at things different.”

Fellow front-line firefighter Allison Vickerd said she has looked at Taylor as a mentor calling her “frank and down to earth” and an ”example to both men and women” in the fire department.

“She is a trail-blazer and a true example of strength in our profession,” she said. “She has been a phenomenal mentor because sometimes you can get caught up in a male-dominated work environment with different personalities and challenges, but she has done nothing but help the department.”

hrivers@postmedia.com