Essential and fundamental to career growth and job satisfaction is the element of trust in one’s direct supervision and senior leadership. The lack of trust could be a significant barrier in female firefighter retention within the fire service. Trust in individuals is critical to a feeling of psychological safety with the context of a group or team. Taking risks is essential to be promoted and to take advantage of opportunity. For some women barriers and the cost of taking risks, cause diminished or missed promotional opportunities. The aim of this study was to explore the impact of trust and psychological safety in relation to retention and promotion of women within their departments. The Critical Incident Technique was leveraged as part of a cross-sectional qualitative study. A purposive sample (n =8) of female firefighters were interviewed based on their perceptions of trust and psychological safety in the workplace, resulting in over 25 separate incidents for analysis. Thematic analysis was conducted to identify themes. Trust emerged as one of the primary components necessary for retention and promotion of women in the fire service. Self-confidence and a determination to succeed were identified as common among the participant sample. Although not articulated as such, women did perceive a lack of elements of psychological safety as a barrier to their success and reaching promotional goals, and leadership behaviors, implicit voice theories, and proactive behaviors, were identified as critical areas of further inquiry to support women in long-term fire service careers.