Gas engineer Sarah keeping people safe across North Yorks
Pickering is home to the north of England’s only female emergency gas engineer.
Sarah Wilkinson is an Operational Response Engineer Northern Gas Networks – the North of England’s gas distributor.
If a customer smells gas, Sarah is first on the scene.
Using hi-tech equipment such as a Gascoseeker, combined with years of experience, Sarah is responsible for detecting and fixing gas leaks, to keep customers safe and sound.
The role remains male-dominated, reflective of the fact that just 11% of all engineering jobs in the UK are occupied by women.
However, Sarah has had nothing but encouragement from her male counterparts since she took up the job five years ago.
She said: “All the lads have been very supportive.
“There’s been none of that ‘she’s a girl, so she can’t do it,’ nonsense.
“When I first started, I was quite nervous, as I think everyone is. You are given your training, but nothing can quite prepare you for that first call-out in the middle of the night, when it is just you, on your own, responsible for keeping the customer safe.
“You’ve also got to be prepared for just about anything. Only last week, I found myself trying to free a live pigeon that had got stuck in a customer’s chimney. Thankfully, it escaped safe and sound.”