From retail to saving lives

It was just 19 years ago when Lizelle Delport was working in retail. This all changed when she saw an advertisement for a post with the Fire Department. With encouragement from her friend she applied and was accepted. She passed with flying colours and since then she has never looked back.

“During the training I realised that I actually had a passion for this type of job and I dedicated myself to saving the lives of others,” said Delport.

She said that she has never been afraid of the dangers that the work posed even though she was the only woman at the Brixton Fire Station at the time.

Delport admits that her work does not enable her to have much of a private life as she even works on her off days and her job has become her hobby.

The most challenging situation she recalls happened when she was still new, when she had to put out a fire that broke out on the fourth floor of a building.

“When we got to the burning building my colleagues were stuck on the fourth floor, and the public that was watching became aggressive because we were unable to put out the fire as our the metal hydrant pipes had been stolen,” she said.

Thanks to Delport’s quick thinking she managed to get through the angry crowd and called for backup and the situation was quickly resolved. For their efforts, Delport and her team were nominated for a Centrum Guardian Award.

Delport recommended that women who wanted to join the Fire Department should start by volunteering so that they can determine if they want to continue with the job as it is not for the faint-hearted.

She added that she had to be very strict with her male colleagues so they could see that she was very serious about her job.

Delport said she gets happy when the public thank her for doing her job well. Delport is currently the Platoon Commander and has 11 members in her team.