Thick black smoke billowed over the industrial zone in Pakistan's largest city last week as firefighter Syeda Masooma Zaidi raced toward the raging blaze in Karachi.

The storage facility was packed with truck and car tires, and the flames leapt hungrily, black plumes twisting skyward.

Heat shimmered off the asphalt, turning the air heavy and acrid, stinging her eyes and lungs.

Zaidi did not hesitate amid the deafening roar, hose in hand, her helmet strapped tight.

The 23-year-old and the rest of her firefighting team — all men — aimed the jets of water at the molten rubber, which hissed and steamed under the torrent.

The team worked methodically, every movement precise, every second critical.

Hours later, the blaze was under control.

Zaidi is a rare sight in a country where women firefighters were mostly unheard-of until 2024.

Her career — like those of other women in Pakistan’s emergency services — underscores the gradual inroads being made in the staunchly patriarchal and traditional Islamic nation.

“We have to dispel the impression that girls cannot do rescue service jobs, and girls are also performing rescue work as boys do,” she said.

Some were inspired when Shazia Perveen became Pakistan's very first woman firefighter in 2010 in eastern Punjab province, where she is now a trainer.

In Sindh province, where Karachi is the capital, women started joining firefighting services in 2024 after getting their training in Punjab.

And though they still make up less than 1% of Pakistan's firefighters, authorities say more women are likely to join firefighting units in the coming years in the country of 255 million.

Most Pakistani women who go into professional fields choose careers as doctors, engineers or teachers, Zaidi said.

Dr. Abid Jalaluddin Sheikh, chief of the Sindh Emergency Service, said Zaidi is one of 50 women firefighters in the province.

Another 180 are in training as rescue divers, ambulance medics and emergency responders.

Zaidi graduated from the Punjab Rescue Service Academy, where she mastered high-angle rescues that use ladders, ropes and trolleys and typically involve victims trapped in skyscrapers, industrial towers or other high elevations, as well as various types of fire and water emergencies.

Still, she says she feels many doubt her ability on the job.

“When we arrive, people say, ‘She’s a girl — how can she rescue anyone?’” she said. “Every time we save a life, we prove that women can also do this job.”

AP video shot by Muhammad Farooq