Outstanding performances by firefighters in Peterborough and Cambridgeshire celebrated

Taking place at the Huntingdon Marriott Hotel, the event celebrated the achievements of staff from across different areas of the service. The commitment, dedication and professionalism of staff who regularly go above and beyond to provide the best possible service to the people of Peterborough and Cambridgeshire were all celebrated by around 140 guests.

Hosting the event was chief fire officer Chris Strickland together with assistant chief fire officer Jon Anderson, with deputy chief executive Matthew Warren and head of media and communication Hayley Douglas leading the ceremony.

The following awards were presented throughout the evening:

Mr Strickland said: “Our awards allow us to celebrate all the hard work and dedication shown by staff and to thank them and their families for providing great support.

“It gives me great pride to be able to recognise the achievements of so many members of staff from across the different areas of the service. The passion, enthusiasm and professionalism shown by our winners, as well as the years of commitment shown by those receiving long service awards, is really inspiring. It shows me how devoted our staff are to providing a great service to the people of Cambridgeshire.

“Being able to celebrate our staff achievements in this way would not be possible without the continued support of our sponsors. I must say a big thank you to all the organisations that have contributed to the evening.”

The cost for the event was paid for by the following organisations:

. TruckEast and Scania

. Emergency One and Clan Tools

. Supply Plus

. Bristol Uniforms

. Hunter Apparel

. Interspiro

The evening ended with a raffle of prizes donated by sponsors.

The list of awards and recipients are included below:

Long Service and Good Conduct medal recipients

Awarded after completing 20 years’ long and meritorious service to the fire and rescue service and the public.

Richard Boston – Watch Commander, Training Centre, Huntingdon

Richard Broad – Firefighter, March

Rachel Casbon – Firefighter, Sutton

Lee Forster – Watch Commander, Training Centre, Huntingdon

Daniel Granger – Firefighter, Cottenham

Chairman’s Award

Presented to retired personnel who have completed at least 25 years’ service.

Mark Brown – Watch Commander, Whittlesey

Martin Brown – Station Commander, Fire Protection

Martin Claydon – Crew Commander, Burwell

David Killner – Watch Commander, Sawtry

David Murfitt – Firefighter, Littleport

Roy Nicholas – Firefighter, Gamlingay

Teri Seaber – Group Commander, Combined Fire Control

Debbie Vickers – Station Commander, Combined Fire Control

Excellence Awards

Georgina Coop - nominated several times for her drive, passion, enthusiasm and consistently outstanding performance in developing staff across the organisation.

Media and communication team - for producing the John Lewis advert themed Christmas video.

Simon Thompson - nominated twice for planning and organising the service’s training exercises.

Amanda Shepherd - nominated twice for consistently going the extra mile and producing to high standards.

Nicola Barlow - nominated twice for organising the memorial event for Firefighter John Humphries

John Fagg - for designing and organising the STEM school challenge programme.

March Fire Station - for demonstrating outstanding community spirit and fundraising, as well as maintaining consistently high availability for both pumps at the station.

Liam Napier - for dealing with a member of the public that was threatening to jump from a bridge onto the A14.

Bruce Parcell - for delivering over and above expectations and consistently producing to high standards.

Joe Gacon - for consistently going over and above to deliver engaging road safety education and creative media content.

Huntingdon Fire Station on-call crew - for consistently going above and beyond supporting incidents with the Incident Commander Unit and the various other command support functions.

. Dogsthorpe and Stanground White Watch - presented by Emergency One and Clan Tools. For excellent use of ops discretion at an incident to rescue quickly rescue casualties trapped in a car in a water filled ditch.

On-call Recruit of the Year - presented by TruckEast and Scania.

Chosen by the service’s Training Centre team

Jon Yarnold (Papworth Fire Station) - he very much stood out to the training instructors while on his initial training course for his attitude and commitment.

Community Champion of the Year

Gary Dew - for his commitment and support delivering community safety activity as a volunteer.

Certificate of Commendation

BG Commercials - for supporting operational training with lorry cabs and venues.

Chief Fire Officer’s Commendation

Nick Tait and Albi Andrews - for helping evacuate casualties from a house fire in Cambridge.

Bob Smith - for the lifesaving intervention made when his wife suffered a cardiac arrest.