The first woman in history joins the professional fire department. Fingers crossed.
“From September 1, 2022, Michaela Žďárská will join the field unit of the Prague professional firefighters, who will serve at the Holešovice fire station.
Volunteer firefighter, 32-year-old Michaela Žďárská, met all the requirements to become the first professional firefighter in the field unit. To HZS hl. City of Prague starts the B shift at the new Holešovice station. Michaela passed the physical, health and psychological tests without any exemptions or concessions, i.e. the same as professional firefighters have for men.
On September 1, 2022, it was introduced to the public by the Minister of the Interior Vít Rakušan and the Director General of the HZS CR, Lieutenant General Vladimír Vlček, directly at the fire station in Holešovice. Both emphasized that the new colleague of Prague’s professional firefighters met all the requirements to become one of them and she will not have any concessions or special privileges during her service as a member of the HZS.
The first 24-hour service at HZS hl. City of Prague will serve on Saturday, September 3, 2022.
Michaela Žďárská has been working in the Prague Dolní Měcholupy volunteer fire brigade since 2019. In three years, she has been on 49 trips with the volunteer fire brigade, both for technical assistance and for fires, or for extraordinary events such as assistance in removing damage after a tornado or a covid emergency and assistance in connection with the war in Ukraine. She considers the apartment fire in April last year in Černokostelecká Street, where 14 people were injured (burnt), including 7 children, to be her most difficult experience as a volunteer firefighter. She and her unit were the second to arrive at the scene and it was necessary to provide first aid to the injured before the arrival of the emergency services.
As part of the field unit of the volunteer firefighters, she also completed a course in wearing breathing equipment and then an internship with the HZS at the Strašnice station. For example, she participated in last year’s RescueDays – i.e. training in extrication from crashed vehicles, or completed training in the Fire Dragon 9000 fire trainer from the Drager company.
This year, Michaela Žďárská started the firefighting competition in the TFA discipline. He is currently participating in a series of competitions in the Prague and Central Bohemian Leagues and the North Bohemian League. It is TFA that is an excellent preparation for her for the physical stress of interventions,” said Martin Kavka, spokesman for the Prague fire department.