Fire service honours long serving staff at awards ceremony

Essex County Fire and Rescue Service has honoured its long serving employees in a special awards presentation. 

The event, the Service’s biggest ever Long Service and Good Conduct ceremony, celebrated long serving fire service employees that have completed 20 years’ service and more. 

Colleagues who have served 20, 30, 40 years and beyond in the fire service were presented with their Long Service and Good Conduct medals and Long Service awards by Her Majesty’s Lord Lieutenant of Essex, Mrs Jennifer Tolhurst at a special ceremony which took place at Hylands House in Chelmsford. Their families were also invited to celebrate their achievements.

The ceremony was opened by Chief Fire Officer/Chief Executive Rick Hylton and Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Roger Hirst, and was hosted by Deputy Chief Fire Officer Moira Bruin and Deputy Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Jane Gardner.

Firefighters who have completed 20 years' service were awarded The Fire Brigade’s Long Service and Good Conduct Medals. These medals are awarded nationally, on behalf of Her Majesty the Queen, to all operational staff who have completed 20 years of outstanding service to the public. 

Special awards were also presented to support staff who had completed 20 years' service and employees who had completed 40 years service and more. 

Chief Fire Officer/Chief Executive Rick Hylton said:  

“We are always proud of the achievements of our people and their dedication and long service. This was an evening where we took the time to celebrate that and pay tribute to their hard work and dedication to duty over many years.

“Thank you all for the contribution you have made and continue to make to make Essex a safe place for people to live, work and travel.”

Essex County Fire and Rescue Service prides itself on recognising the achievements of its team members and values the contributions everyone makes.

There are many different types of career opportunities on offer to people, not just operational and frontline but in specialist and professional support roles too. People can find out more about the range of the roles on offer at join.essex-fire.gov.uk