The last days of Spain’s first female firefighter: “I have always done it the same as them… or better”

On the day of the first fire, a firefighter, one of the veterans, approached her and said: “I think, María Luisa, that you should not come, because you are going to burn…”.

And María Luisa’s neck vein swelled so much that a code red was almost declared on the Puertollano Fire Station. «I told him that if I didn’t want to burn myself, I wouldn’t have applied to be a firefighter and I would have taken the secretary course. So I go and you can wear whatever you want.

-And what happened?

-Well, when we arrived the fire was already out, so nothing… But the fact is that that day I decided and went out. And I think that the fact of imposing myself at that moment changed everything. Because if I hadn’t, they would have eaten me. That these, when they do pineapple, are a bit bastards…

It was the year 1986, perhaps already ’87, Spain had just entered the European Economic Community, the Yeah had barely won the NATO referendum, the TV star was La Bruja Avería and a young woman from La Mancha called María Luisa Cabañero Sánchez de León (Puertollano, 1966) had just become the first woman to obtain a position as a professional firefighter in Spain. She says today, almost four decades later, that this honor belongs to a colleague who died some time later in an accident, but the truth is that the name of María Luisa appears in the newspaper archive as the pioneer. Also as the only female firefighter of that generation who is still active. At least until now… because on day 4 he leaves it. Corporal Cabañero retires at 59s. It will officially do so on December 31, but its last active day will be next Tuesday.

“That day I will cook arepas for my colleagues,” she says from the offices of the Puertollano fire station, in Ciudad Real, where she started and where she will finish her career. 29 firefighters now work here. They are all men, except María Luisa and Laura, a young woman who has just entered the job market. Today they will eat a kind of frozen seafood paella that one of the rookies is making while María Luisa organizes the last practices of the newly incorporated ones. He supervises that the equipment is clean and orderly, collects the ropes, shows us the NBC suits – although he does not remember well what each acronym meant (Nuclear, Biological and Chemical) -, also the fire retardants and some beekeeper-like uniforms for emergencies with bees, of which, apparently, there are a few in the area. Then he gives us a guided tour of the rooms of the premises. “The cabos have a better mattress and our own bathroom”he jokes. Before eating, he plans a truck ride around the building and teaches a kid who doesn’t understand reverse gear how to change gears. “Suavecito, damn it won’t fit,” the boss scolds him.

-Is María Luisa very bossy? We asked.

-Well… It’s a command and the command rules.

María Luisa’s office is on the first floor of the building, just after crossing the gym and a climbing wall in which a legend says: «It is advisable to make sure. The cemeteries are full of brave and imbeciles». Behind his desk is a shelf full of old filing cabinets, a painting with a photo of a cloud of black smoke hangs, and a whiteboard with boring notes about cones, screwdrivers, and beehives. On the cover of his computer there are some colorful stickers with competitive hot air balloons, one of his great passions. «The first thing I will do when I retire is go fly because this year I have flown little»account. “They invited me to Nepal and Brazil and I couldn’t go because I worked every other day.”

In addition to being a firefighter and balloon pilot, María Luisa is a record-breaking swimmer. His biography reads like a story by Jules Verne. In 1990 he crossed the Strait of Gibraltar without a wetsuit in 5 hours and 55 minutes. A year later, he was the first person to complete the 58 kilometer round trip in almost 11 hours. In 1993 he swam 24 hours straight and more than 82 kilometers in a pool to beat the Guinness record.and some time later he immersed himself in the English Channel and Loch Ness at temperatures of up to 10 degrees without a thermal suit. His name is in the Swimming Hall of Fame.

When he took the tests to join the Fire Department, he swept all the men in the promotion in the pool. «I remember that one of the teammates who was swimming next to me saw me standing when he still had two lengths left and told me: ‘But why are you stopping, beautiful?’. And I told him: ‘Well, because I’m done.’

“I have never wanted to be a pioneer of anything. I only defend what I believe is fair. If you can do something, why can’t I?”

That year 1,200 applicants applied. 400 stayed, only two women. Of the 135 who achieved a place in Ciudad Real, María Luisa was the 88th. “I was not the first… but I was not the last either,” she boasts. And, suddenly, I was a firefighter.

According to the latest counts, the percentage of women in the Fire Department in our country still does not reach 5%.

“In my case it was all by chance,” she says. «I was 18 years old, I was studying COU and working as a swimming instructor and a classmate came to tell me that they had called the tests for a firefighter competition. You had to run 10 kilometers, swim 200 meters, jump I don’t know how much… And I thought: ‘I think I can do that’». And he did it. «My idea was to study INEF, but I liked partying a lot and studying little. When I tried the firefighter thing I said, ‘wow, this is super fun.’ We climbed a tower, we rappelled… I enjoyed it a lot and look, they made us do things that would be unthinkable today, like walking along a ledge 20 meters high without a harness or anything to see if we had vertigo. Security, zero patatero.

What did they tell you at home when you said you wanted to be a firefighter?

My mother told me: ‘Well, let’s see how the tests go, but I don’t think you’ll pass them because that’s for men…’.

And what did the men say to him when he had passed them? How was the reception in the Corps?

The relationship with them was more or less normal because I had already met most of them in the entrance exams. They already knew that I was going at their pace, that I was one more. I do remember that the first days, when we went out with the truck, they lowered the window and started shouting through the town as if it were a circus: ‘We have a firefighter, we have a firefighter!’. And that did feel bad to me.

Then the first fire came and that: “I don’t think you should come, María Luisa, because you’re going to get burned…”.

«I have never wanted to prove anything, I have only defended what I believe is fair. If you can do this, why can’t I?», she ditches. “But I have never felt machismo, perhaps because I have always made it clear what I was going to do and that I could do it just like them… Or better.”

“I have always been a weirdo. Some man has told me that he was afraid of me because I knew how to do everything… Well, look, it’s better to be scared than sad”

But you are aware of having broken many barriers.

Not at all. When I started I didn’t know if there were more women or not. Nor did I do it to be a pioneer. I didn’t care if I was first, third or number 27. It makes me laugh when they tell me I’m the first woman. And I say: ‘wow, I charge the same as the rest.’ The only thing I did was get into a car and here I am for now, delighted with life. I had a great time and if I were born again tomorrow, I would be a firefighter again.

¿Bombero or bombera?

I say I’m a firefighter, but because firefighter sounds worse to me. I don’t know… Firefighter, firefighter, bombers…

Do you consider yourself a feminist icon?

No, no, no. I’ve always been a weirdo. When I got my balloon pilot title in 2000 there was no other woman either. If that’s anything to go by, I think it’s great, but I’m not looking for it. It’s true that some man has once told me that I scared him because I knew how to do everything… Well, look, it’s better to be scared than sad, right?

What element does it get along best with: water, fire, air…?

I love playing with everyone. I am a jack of all trades and a master of none. I enjoy and suffer with everything because I am very competitive and I love to fight. If I don’t win, I’m screwed.

Can you beat fire?

If it wants to eat you, the fire eats you. But the air, too. And the water. We are nothing, we are insignificant. We are a feather. If a force of nature wants to eat you, it will eat you with potatoes. We just play. And I play with water, I play with air and I play with fire.

María Luisa says that the worst thing about her profession is traffic accidents, because “you don’t know what you’re going to find,” or events with children. And he especially remembers a fire in Almadén. «A house had burned down and when we arrived the couple was outside with the children. We asked if everyone was outside and they said yes, but when we entered we heard a child crying. When we called him, he stayed silent. It was distressing until we got it out.. “It was under the bed… The parents had five or six children and they had not counted correctly.”

Have you ever been reckless?

So many times we are reckless… But I came here with a different mentality than the firefighters of today, who arrive with an idea in capital letters: “If the savior does not arrive, the saved one dies.” Before it was different: the savior always came in and if you die, then you die. But we always passed. Nowadays they don’t risk as much. Today, occupational hazards force you to put on a harness to jump off a balcony. But do you think I have time to put on a harness? When I finish putting it on, the one inside has already died.

Have you ever been scared?

No, never afraid. Fire must be respected, but not feared.

Tell me something that is an advantage for being a woman in the world of firefighters.

I think we are less impulsive than them.

And how do we ensure that there are more women in the Corps?

Let them show up! What cannot be is that 800 places will be available tomorrow and 20 women and 780 men will show up. You have to balance from the base and not give the places away.

Shouldn’t there be positive discrimination?

I think not, because in the end we women demand things that in the end do not benefit us. I want to have my place because I have earned it, not because of a fee. Because then the work is the same for everyone. Equality is that we all have the same conditions, not that they demand less from me than from you.

What can we do in Spain so that fires do not destroy us every summer?

Each fire is different, but the fault lies with the institutions, which are the ones in charge and don’t pay a damn attention. We are morning cantamans who do nothing more than put out fires.

Are you going to miss him? About putting out fires, I say.

Do you know when I think I’ll miss it? When you see them passing through Puertollano with the truck.

And what would you say to a girl who wants to be like you?

If you want, you can. But you have to really want it.

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