Fleur Lombard

Infobox Person
name = Fleur Lombard


caption =
birth_date = 1974
birth_place =
death_date = 4 February 1996
death_place = Staple Hill, Bristol, UK
other_names =
known_for = First female firefighter to die on duty in peacetime Britain
occupation = Firefighter
nationality = British

Fleur Lombard QGM (1974 – 4 February 1996cite web|url=http://www.fire.org.uk/deaths.php|title=UK Deaths on Duty|publisher=FireNet|language=English|accessdate=2008-07-01] ) was the first female firefighter to die on duty in peacetime Britain.

taple Hill supermarket fire

Fleur Lombard was one of only eight women among Avon's 700 firefighters.cite web|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/htmlContent.jhtml?html=/archive/1997/09/02/nfleur02.html|title=Arsonist gets seven years for killing firewoman|last=Shaw|first=Terence|date=1997-09-02|publisher=Telegraph Group Limited|language=English|accessdate=2008-07-01] On graduating in 1994, Lombard received the Silver Axe Award, for most outstanding recruit on her training school.cite web|url=http://www.avonfire.gov.uk/Avon/The+Fleur+Lombard+Bursary.htm|title=The Fleur Lombard Bursary|publisher=Avon Fire and Rescue Service|language=English|accessdate=2008-07-01] 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 woman to die in peacetime service in Britain.cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2381329.stm|title=Dying in the line of duty|date=2002-09-31|publisher=BBC News|language=English|accessdate=2008-07-01]

She was posthumously awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal.cite web|url=http://www.i-women.org/in_memoriam.php?person=83|title=In Memoriam, Fleur Lombard|publisher=International Association of Women in Fire & Emergency Services|language=English|accessdate=2008-07-01] 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.cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/73464.stm|title=Posthumous award for female firefighter|date=1998-04-03|publisher=BBC News|language=English|accessdate=2008-07-01] Another firefighter, Pat Foley, who also went into the blazing supermarket to help, was awarded the Queen's Commendation for Bravery.

Martin Cody

The fire was deliberately started by security guard Martin Cody, 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. 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 jailed for seven and a half years for manslaughter and arson. The sentencing judge of 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. Lombard's parents criticised the jail sentence, saying psychiatric treatment would have been more appropriate.

Legacy

Lombard's ashes are interred in the churchyard of St Enodoc's Church, Trebetherick, Cornwall. A trust fund and bursary were set up in her memory.

A memorial plaque stands close to where Lombard died. [cite web|url=http://hosted.southglos.gov.uk/planningweeklylists/2007Archive/Circulated%20Schedule/Oct12.pdf|title=List of Planning Applications and Other Proposals|date=2007-10-12|publisher=South Gloucestershire Council|language=English|accessdate=2008-07-01] Her name is on the UK National Firefighters Memorial located near St. Paul's Cathedral, London. [cite web|url=http://www.firefightersmemorial.co.uk/inmemory.html|title=In Memoriam|publisher=Firefighters Memorial Charitable Trust|language=English|accessdate=2008-07-01]

References