Firefighter Arlene Wehr is used to breaking barriers.
The former Mitchells Plain resident became one of the first female firefighters in the City of Cape Town’s ranks in 1996.
Fast-forward 23 years and she’s just shattered another glass ceiling - this time to become the first female Head: Operations, District West.
Wehr started her new job on 1 June, becoming the first woman to fill a position at this level since the Fire and Rescue Service was established in 1845.
Wehr joined the service in 1996, giving up a desk job in the private sector to pursue her passion for serving the community.
She was inspired by relatives, who were working in the service at the time.
“When I joined, I was one of the first females to do so. There were two others before me, and one had left by the time I joined,” she says.
“There were many challenges in what was then a male-dominated environment, but I managed to turn these into opportunities and I steadily worked my way through the ranks.
“I hope my achievement will inspire other young women to join the service,” Wehr says.
The new position is but the latest in a series of firsts for Wehr.
In 2004, she became the first female Station Officer in the service and in 2014 she
became the first female Divisional Commander.
In 2016, she received a Lifetime Achiever Award from the City for groundbreaking gender equality work, and she is currently the Vice President of the SA Emergency Services Institute.
In her new role, she is responsible for eight of the City’s fire stations, namely Cape Town (Roeland Street), Sea Point, Salt River, Epping, Brooklyn, Hout Bay, Constantia and Wynberg.
The City’s Safety Boss, JP Smith, congratulated Wehr, saying: “She has written herself into the City’s history books, with humility and determination, unwittingly blazing a trail for others to follow.”