A mother and daughter from Purley has made firefighting history at Tooting Fire Station by serving at the same time.

Katie Holloway, 22, has just joined the station, which has her mother, station manager Sally Harper, at the helm.

When Ms Harper joined the station in 1988 there were only seven serving female firefighters in the whole of London. Now there are more than 300.

She said: “Katie may have joined the same station as me but it has changed so much since the late 80s.

“My locker was in a cupboard, which I had to go through the men’s changing rooms to access.

“After giving birth to my first daughter, Joanne, I was the first firefighter to come back to the station after having a baby and attitudes towards women in the fire service were sometimes very challenging.

“It’s heartening to hear Katie’s experience has been completely different and that everyone has welcomed her on the watch and been so supportive.

“"I've been a firefighter for the whole of Katie's life so it's always been normal for her to see me in this role and understand shift work which means we sometimes miss Christmas or birthdays.

"When Katie was at play school she once pretended to be the driver and the teacher asked 'what are you driving?' She said 'I'm driving a fire engine like my mum'.

"The teacher tried to correct her and said 'don't you mean your dad?' and Katie came straight back with 'No! Like my mum.'”

Ms Holloway said: “We had a bin fire, six minutes into my first shift and dealt with incidents from the recent storm named after me.

"We've also carried out home fire safety visits and done lots of training so it's been full on but everyone has been so lovely and made me feel at home.

"I'm immensely proud of the work my mum and others have done for women in the fire service, which makes it a completely different experience to when she joined."