Fleur Lombard

Fleur Lombard QGM (27 May 1974 – 4 February 1996) was the first female firefighter to die on duty in peacetime Britain.

Fleur Lombard
Fleur Lombard receiving the Silver Axe Award
Born27 May 1974[1]
Watford, Hertfordshire, England
Died4 February 1996(1996-02-04) (aged 21)[2]
Staple Hill, Bristol, England
NationalityBritish
OccupationFirefighter
Known forFirst female firefighter to die on duty in peacetime Britain

Biography

Fleur Lombard was born in Watford, Hertfordshire, UK. The plaque[3] at the site her ashes are interred records her parents as Roger and Jane Lombard and that she had a sister Rebecca. Her grandfather was Adrian Lombard, who received a posthumous CBE for his services to export as Director of Engineering at Rolls Royce, led the team who developed the RB211 jet engine. She died at the scene of the fire that destroyed a supermarket in Staple Hill, Bristol, UK. The fire was started deliberately by a security guard working in the supermarket, who was sentenced to 7 years.[4]

Staple Hill supermarket fire

Fleur Lombard was one of only eight women among Avon's 700 firefighters.[5] On graduating in 1994, Lombard received the Silver Axe Award, for most outstanding recruit on her training school.[6] On 4 February 1996, when she was 21 years old, she was fighting a supermarket fire in Staple Hill, near Bristol, when she and her partner, Robert Seaman, were caught in a flashover. She was killed as a direct result of the intense heat and her body was found just a few yards from the exit. Lombard was the first female firefighter to die in peacetime service in Britain.[5][7]

Posthumously, she was awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal.[8] Robert Seaman was awarded the George Medal for bravery for returning to the burning building when he realised his partner had not followed him out.[9] Another firefighter, Pat Foley, who also went into the blazing supermarket to help, was awarded the Queen's Commendation for Bravery.[9]

Martin Cody

The fire was deliberately started by security guard Martin Cody,[5] then aged 21, on his first day at work at the supermarket. Cody was said to live in a fantasy world and started the fire to relieve his boredom.[5] He phoned a colleague to say the fire was "a good one", and was seen punching the air with glee before firefighters arrived on the scene. Cody was later convicted at Exeter Crown Court of manslaughter and arson.[5] The judge who sentenced him to seven-and-a-half years' imprisonment at the Royal Courts of Justice stated that he had escaped a life sentence for the manslaughter only because psychiatrists were unable to say he posed a continuing serious risk to the public.[5] Lombard's parents criticised the jail sentence, saying psychiatric treatment would have been more appropriate.[5]

Legacy

Lombard's funeral service was held on 14 February 1996, at Derby Cathedral. She was cremated and her ashes were later interred in the churchyard of St Enodoc's Church, Trebetherick, Cornwall.[6] A trust fund and bursary were set up in her memory.[6]

A memorial plaque stands close to where Lombard died.[10] Her name is on the UK National Firefighters Memorial located near St. Paul's Cathedral, London.[11]

In her memory, Avon Fire and Rescue Service have set up the Fleur Lombard Bursary Fund.[12] This provides travel grants so that a junior UK firefighter may visit the fire service of another country.

On 15 May 2019, Great Western Railway named a Class 800 intercity express train (IET), No. 800023, in her honour.[13]

See also

References
  1. England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916–2007
  2. "UK Deaths on Duty". FireNet. Archived from the original on 22 April 2008. Retrieved 1 July 2008.
  3. "Tablet of Firefighter Fleur Lombard QGM at St Enodoc".
  4. Yong, Michael (4 May 2017). "Remembering firefighter Fleur Lombard, who died after arsonist set Bristol supermarket on fire". Bristol Post. Retrieved 29 August 2018.
  5. Shaw, Terence (2 September 1997). "Arsonist gets seven years for killing firewoman". Telegraph Group Limited. Archived from the original on 11 March 2007. Retrieved 1 July 2008.
  6. "The Fleur Lombard Bursary". Avon Fire and Rescue Service. Archived from the original on 6 October 2008. Retrieved 1 July 2008.
  7. "Dying in the line of duty". BBC News. 31 October 2002. Retrieved 1 July 2008.
  8. "In Memoriam, Fleur Lombard". International Association of Women in Fire & Emergency Services. Archived from the original on 31 May 2008. Retrieved 1 July 2008.
  9. "Posthumous award for female firefighter". BBC News. 3 April 1998. Retrieved 1 July 2008.
  10. "List of Planning Applications and Other Proposals" (PDF). South Gloucestershire Council. 12 October 2007. Retrieved 1 July 2008.
  11. "In Memoriam". Firefighters Memorial Charitable Trust. Archived from the original on 18 April 2008. Retrieved 1 July 2008.
  12. "Fleur Lombard Bursary Fund". Avon Fire and Rescue Service.
  13. "Great Western Train". Twitter.
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