Nottinghamshire Fire And Rescue Service Celebrates Exceptional Contributions At Annual Awards Ceremony

Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service (NFRS) gathered to celebrate the dedication, bravery, and commitment of its staff and members of the public at the annual awards ceremony last week.

The ceremony, which took place at Nottingham’s Crowne Plaza on Wednesday 13 November, honoured individuals who have gone above and beyond in their roles, highlighting the vital work done every day to protect and serve the communities of Nottinghamshire. 

The Chief Fire Officer, Craig Parkin, opened the ceremony by expressing his thanks to all staff across the Service for their hard work throughout the past year, as NFRS were rated ‘good’ in their latest HMICFRS Inspection, hosted various successful conferences, raised over £80,000 for The Fire Fighters Charity, and launched its latest CRMP Consultation. 

Craig then went on to thanking our sponsors for their support and generosity, as without them, the ceremony would not have been possible. Thank you to our gold sponsors, Amptron Electrical Services and YMD Boon Ltd, our ruby sponsor, Angloco Limited, our silver sponsors, Drivercheck Ltd and Frank Key Group Merchants Ltd, and our bronze sponsors, Wood Lane Timber Merchants Ltd and Keystone IT Ltd.

The ceremony was attended by over 170 people, including the Lord-Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire, the High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire, the Vice Chair of Nottingham’s Fire Authority, and various councillors from the Fire Authority. 

The ceremony recognises a wide range of achievements, from completing over 20 years-service, to life-saving actions by both firefighters and members of the public, to outstanding work done by non-operational members of staff which is above and beyond their day job. 

The first award presented on the evening was the Chief Fire Officer’s Certificate of Recognition, which is awarded to those who have carried out a particularly noteworthy act. Winners of this award included two firefighters who administered first aid to a casualty which saved his life,  a Watch Manager who has dedicated the last seven years to better the mental health of NFRS employees, a Crew Manager who performed CPR on an individual in cardiac arrest and saving his life whilst off duty and two members of the public who rescued a lady from the River Trent in a time of destress.

The Lord-Lieutenant, Veronica Pickering MBS HAC, presented the Outstanding Public Service Award to Tim Marston, who is one of our Fire Investigation Dog Handlers. This was awarded to Tim for his work over the past 18 years on Nottingham’s Easter Egg run, which sees bikers ride from the Forest Recreational Ground to Mansfield Fire Station and provides Easter Egg’s to vulnerable children across the county.

Seth Vasey, who has dedicated over 30-years to being an On-Call Firefighter at Blidworth Fire Station, was the recipient of the High Sheriff of Nottingham’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Other awards and winners on the night were: 

• Openness To Change Award – Occupational Health Technician Natalie Dowling, for stepping up in her role to support the rest of the team in a time of need to ensure they could still fulfil their statutory duties as an Occupational Health Team
• Professionalism Award – Firefighter Jonathon Spittlehouse, for administering first aid to a colleague whilst on shift one month into his role
• Fire Authority’s Creating Safer Communities Award – Watch Manager Christopher Trendowicz, for running and coordinating a road safety initiative to members of the public for the last ten years in addition to his day job
• Fire Authority Chair’s Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Award – Business Safety Advocate Sophie Winterbottom, for her work to promote equality and inclusion both locally, and nationally
• One Team Award – Asian Fire Service Association (AFSA) Summer Conference Organising Group, for organising a successful conference on top of their busy day jobs
• Collaboration Award – Pulp Friction and Group Manager Chris Emmott for the success of their garden at this years Chelsea Flower Show, the ATTFE College for their ongoing partnership with Ashfield Fire Station and two members of staff who have delivered training to over 400 volunteers as part of Nottinghamshire’s Flooding Volunteer Scheme in collaboration with Nottingham County Council

The Fire Fighters Charity also attended the evening and presented two awards. The first award was the Frank Swann Award for Outstanding Contribution to The Fire Fighters Charity, and it recognises an individual, team, or station that has demonstrated dedication and commitment to the charity. This year’s recipient was Gerry Williscroft, who is currently on secondment to Humberside Fire and Rescue Service as a Station Manager. He has supported the charity for many years and has been fundraising for them since 2014. His next challenge is running the London Marathon and is currently raising funds for that. The second charity award is presented to the fire station has raised the most amount of money between April 2023 and April 2024 – the winner of this award was London Road Fire Station, who raised a grand total of £4,568.80. 

The final award was the most prestigious of the night, and this was the Chief Fire Officer’s Commendation, which is received for showing courage, determination, and outstanding effort, which is worth of special note.

This year’s commendation was awarded to member of the public, Oliver Burns. Oliver rescued a driver from a well-alight vehicle that had left the road and ended in a ditch, saving his life. Without his actions, the outcome would have been fatal, and for someone that isn’t trained to do this, it is highly commendable.

The evening was then closed by Vice Chair of the Fire Authority, Audra Wynter. She said: “The evening showed us multiple examples of the outstanding work that goes on across the organisation, and yet I know this is just a small sample of what happens daily. 

“Thank you to everyone in the Service for their continued bravery and commitment to creating safer communities across Nottinghamshire.”