Meet Saudi Arabia’s first certified female firefighters

Two Saudi women were among a group of engineers who participated in Saudi Aramco’s training exercise designed to challenge firefighters’ skills.

The team of Saudi Aramco firefighters advanced deliberately, and methodically into a wall of dense smoke and roaring flames during a training exercise.

The two women are from the company’s Fire Protection Department’s Engineering and Training Services Division. Abeer O. Aljabr, an Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management graduate from the University of Sharjah, UAE, and Jazyah E. Aldossary, a chemical engineering graduate from the University of Missouri in the United States, are the first Saudi women to be trained as Saudi Aramco firefighters — meeting the National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA) rigorous Professional Qualifications Standards.

Saudi women firefighters. (Supplied)

“These young engineers, including our female colleagues, are challenging themselves to be the very best,” said Ghassan G. Abulfaraj, FrPD manager. “By doing this, they are awakening the entire fire service community — challenging the status quo and raising the bar for all of us.

“I am also thrilled to witness this historic moment of having the Kingdom’s first certified female firefighters,” Abulfaraj added.

After participating in the training program, Aldossary said she was inspired by her father, who was a fire chief in the 1990s.

“He was passionate about his job, and that passion was instilled in me from an early age,” said Aldossary. “Joining FrPD is a dream come true. My dad was very proud as the second generation of his family is continuing his legacy.”

Saudi women firefighters. (Supplied)

Aldossary added that although the process to obtain firefighter certification required significant physical demands on a daily basis, the experience has been rewarding.

Aramco said diversity is now taking root in the traditionally male role of the firefighter, and the benefits are proving to be many. The inevitable competition among trainees is elevated by the challenge of women competing in this traditionally male-dominated job.