Excellence celebrated at fire service awards

Excellent work and exemplary service were recently celebrated at Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service’s annual Excellence Awards.

The ceremony, held at the Delta Hotel by Marriott in Huntingdon at the end of January, recognised the outstanding accomplishments of colleagues throughout the year, along with celebrating the tremendous commitment and dedication of those serving for 20 years or more.

Hosting the event was Chief Fire Officer Matthew Warren together with Deputy Chief Fire Officer Jon Anderson, with Assistant Director Hayley Douglas and Assistant Chief Fire Officer Stuart Smith, leading the ceremony in front of around 150 guests.

The following awards were presented throughout the evening:

Long Service and Good Conduct medals – presented under a Royal Warrant for members of the uniformed service after completing 20 years of long and meritorious service to the fire and rescue service and the public. These were presented by the Lord Lieutenant for Cambridgeshire, Mrs Julie Spence.

Long Service presentations – colleagues were celebrated for reaching 20, 30 and 40 year milestones of service, presented by the Lord Lieutenant Mrs Julie Spence.

Fire Authority Chair’s awards – an award made to retired employees and leavers that have completed at least 25 years’ service.

Excellence Awards – these are CFRS internal awards that reflect a variety of different achievements that were nominated by colleagues and chosen by a judging panel.

Silver Axe presentation – for each new recruits course, one member is chosen by the training team to win the silver axe. It is awarded to a recruit who demonstrates high levels of skill and leadership or for their personal journey.

Chief Fire Officer Matthew Warren said: “Our Excellence Awards event is genuinely one of the highlights of the year. It is all about our people, recognising the good work they have done and the selfless commitment they have given the Service and our communities. It’s our people that make our service what it is.

“I am humbled every day by the commitment, flexibility, innovation and dedication that our people demonstrate, day in day out. I really do think it is our people that makes Cambridgeshire stand out from the rest, and the achievements we celebrate today are just the tip of the iceberg of all the great work that goes on across the Service.

“Being able to celebrate our employees’ 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 contributed to the evening.”

The cost for the event was paid for by the generosity of the following organisations: TruckEast, Scania, Supply Plus, Crofton Engineering, Allinson, Interspiro, Emergency One and Hunter Apparel Solutions.

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.

• Ben Anstee – Cambridge and Cottenham fire stations
• Tony Bird – March Fire Station
• Philip Coates – Stanground Fire Station
• Louise Halsall – Kimbolton Fire Station
• Daniel Thacker – Ramsey Fire Station
• Simon Thompson – Head of Operations and Fire Protection
• Christine Warren – Combined Fire Control
• Tirzah Warton – Combined Fire Control
• Jeff Whitlam – Fire Protection

Long Service presentations

20 years’ service:

• Nicky Hoad – Communications Equipment Project Manager, Huntingdon
• Nicola Smith – Business Intelligence and Performance Manager, Huntingdon

30 years’ service:

• Tim Carr – Wisbech Fire Station
• Ray Constant – Sawtry Fire Station
• Phil Pilbeam – Wisbech Fire Station
• Graham George – Huntingdon Fire Station
• Andy Jones – St Neots Fire Station
• Gary Reach – Wisbech Fire Station
• Bob Smith – St Neots Fire Station

Fire Authority Chair’s Award

Presented to staff that have recently retired or left the Service having completed at least 25 years’ service.

• Alex Chrysanthou – Chatteris Fire Station
• Karen Garrard – Commercial team, Huntingdon
• Philip Pilbeam – Wisbech Fire Station
• Chris Strickland – Chief Fire Officer, Huntingdon

Excellence Award Winners

For their contributions to the implementation of the new mobilising system (Systel):

• Project Managers Nicky Hoad and Jodie Houseago
• Project Team – Clare Smith, Karen Gow, Carly Smith, Jack Mosley, Daisy Gooderham, Heidi Lindsay, David Kaye, and Jackie Watson
• Additional supporting colleagues – Sarah Ribbons, Charlotte Black, Matt Rossi, Sam Cox, Amanda Shepherd, Lauren Hopcraft.

Crew Commander Rob Austin – for demonstrating selfless commitment, professionalism and helping others by assisting at an incident whilst off duty.

Community Safety Officer Lily Wilkanowski – for consistently going above and beyond in her role.

Learning and Organisational Development partners Laura Boucher and Kelly Addy – for their diligent, professional and passionate approach to learning and development and commitment to improve, listen and make changes.

Firefighter Lucy Tomlinson – for the dedication, time and effort shown in organising successful events at Burwell fire station this year.

Asset Database Systems Administrator George Kidd – for making an outstanding contribution to improving processes including MiQuest.

Training Centre Instructor Support Technician Kevin Partridge – for his outstanding contribution to the Training Centre for over 21 years.

The Training Centre Team – for going above and beyond to deliver the Service’s first internal Wholetime Firefighter Course.

Paul Clarke, Odette Tattersall and Sharon Ward from Community Fire Safety Prevention team – for the development of the Firebreak Scheme which stands as an exemplary intervention aimed at reducing youth violence and anti-social behaviour in the community.

Former Community Road Safety Officer Kathleen Bowman and PC Nick Southern – for developing and delivering the Older Drivers Workshops providing road safety advice to drivers aged 65 and over.

External Award (certificate of commendation) – Fenland District Council

For allowing an on-call firefighter to respond from work for more than 20 years, as well as providing buildings for training exercises.

External Award (certificate of commendation) – Jenny Wright, Peterborough City Council

For continued collaboration with the Service across many years supporting our road safety activities in Peterborough.

Chief Fire Officer Commendation for Bravery
Joanne Shippey – for rescuing a man from a house fire while at a family party.

Silver Axe presentation

Owain Collard from Huntingdon Fire Station was presented with a silver axe for being the top performing recruit during his initial wholetime recruits course.

On-call firefighters Max Mitzman from Ely Fire Station, Robin Ellis from Sawtry Fire Station and Charlie Hadden from Kimbolton Fire Station were presented with their silver axe awards for being the stand out recruits during their initial training courses.

The Service also recognised colleagues that won external awards over the last year

The Finance Team – was successful at the Public Finance Awards 2024, scooping Digital Finance Project of the Year.

Kathleen Bowman – scooped the Tyre Safety in the Community award at the TyreSafe Awards.

Community Wellbeing Officers Megan Cantwell and Joshua Berrisford – won the Partnership Working Award at the National Fire Chief’s Council Prevention Awards, and the Emergency Services Collaboration of the Year award at the Excellence in Fire Awards 2024.

Fleet Manager Graham Wiggins – was presented with the Outstanding Contribution to the Fire and Rescue Service at the Excellence in Fire Awards.

Finally, in their 140th year, the Peterborough Volunteer Fire Brigade was presented with a certificate of thanks by the Chief Fire Officer for their service to the community.