The Sunday Times Magazine • 9her informed. Bless her heart, she once went into school
asking about the “Terry attack” when I’d been at an
incident the day before. I write appointments in my diary
so we can have as much positive family downtime as
possible. If you do that, you respect it the way you would
other kinds of meetings. So, rather than just sitting and
vegetating, we do good things together, fun things. It
keeps us close. And I do think that, 17 years on, me and
Mike are as close as ever. I hope he says the same thing!
Mike
I remember once reading an article about Sabrina in
a fire service magazine. She was talking about doing
mixed martial arts and I was intrigued. Judging by the
photograph she was very attractive. And then one day,
out of the blue, she was what we call “detached” — sent
to cover a shortfall at another station; mine. We clicked
immediately. I don’t have an interest in martial arts
myself. I find it a bit barbaric, to be honest. She told
me it’s a good way to work out her frustration.
The fire service is a very male-dominated industry.
I think nationally, women make up just 7 per cent of the
workforce. It’s getting better, but Sabrina could always
hold her own. When I learnt what she’d gone through
during her childhood, I saw so much vulnerability there.
I just wanted to put my arms around her and tell her it
was all in the past, that something like that could never
happen again. Together, we’d build a strong foundation.
It’s true I was overprotective of her at first, but I’ve
watched her grow into this remarkable woman. She
has an amazing reputation within the fire service, what
with all the work she’s doing to protect our safety, but
then she always was compassionate. That’s just one of
the attributes that shine from her. I may be nine years
older than her but she’s my inspiration.
I started firefighting full time in 2000. My father was
in the fire service and my cousin is in the police force.
There weren’t a great deal of job opportunities where
I grew up in south Wales and you often kind of fall
into a trade. But I always had a desire to help people.
There is a lot of shoptalk at home — yes, I find it
difficult to switch off. Sab is much better at finding other
things to take her mind away from it. She loves her dogs,
for example. In the pecking order in our house there’s
Gabby, then Luther and Jimmy, our Mexican hairless
hounds — and at the foot of the ladder there’s me.
Watching Sabrina become a public figure has been
inspiring. Whatever she wants to do, I’m here to support
her. It’s a lot to take on and she tends to work 24/7, so
it’s just as well she’s good at juggling so much.
Gabby is 12 now, almost as tall as her mum. The bond
between mother and daughter is much stronger than
it currently is between dad and daughter, but hopefully
that will change. I love the fact Sabrina is such a strong
role model for her. I think if Gabriella grows up to be
half the woman Sab is, she’ll do OK nInterviews by Nick Duerden
Photograph by Paul Stuart
The Heat of the Moment: A Firefighter’s Stories of Life
and Death Decisions by Sabrina Cohen-Hatton is
published by Penguin at £8.STRANGE HABITS
Sabrina on Mike
Every time I load
the dishwasher, he
comes in behind
me and rearranges
everything. Every
single timeMike on Sabrina
Whenever she fills
the dishwasher,
I have to go and
unload it and start
again. I can’t work
out the system she
uses. It’s incredible
— it makes no sense