Fleur Lombard QGM was the first female firefighter to die on duty in peacetime Britain.
Background
Fleur Lombard was born in Derbyshire, United Kingdom. The plaque at the site her ashes are interred records her parents as Roger and Jane Lombard and that she had a sister Rebecca.(She was the granddaughter of Adrian Lombard who received an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire posthumously fir his work on the RB211 jet engine) She died at the scene of the fire that destroyed a supermarket in Staple Hill, Bristol, United Kingdom.
Career
The fire was started deliberately by a bored security guard working in the supermarket he served only 4 years of his 7 year man slaughter sentence. Fleur Lombard was one of only eight women among Avon"s 700 firefighters. 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.
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. Lombard"s funeral service was held on the 14th of February 1996, at Derby Cathedral.
She was cremated and her ashes were later interred in the churchyard of Street 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.
Her name is on the United Kingdom National Firefighters Memorial located near Saint Paul"s Cathedral, London. In her memory, Avon Fire and Rescue Service have set up the Fleur Lombard Bursary Fund.
This provides travel grants so that a junior United Kingdom firefighter may visit the fire service of another country.