The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
A Holbeach hero has been awarded a long service medal to commemorate 20 years in the fire service.
Crew Manager Simon Smith joined the fire service in 1992, based out of Holbeach.
He served until 1997 and rejoined the service in 2001 after a short break.
At an awards ceremony in Lincoln last week, Her Majesty’s Lord Lieutenant of Lincolnshire, Toby Dennis, presented Simon with his long service medal.
Reflecting on his career so far, Simon said firefighting has changed a lot since he began in the early 1990s. Back then, Simon said chimney fires, chip-pan fires and house fires were far more common than today, and he’d attend around one a week.
Simon said this shift has changed the service’s role.
“Over the years the firefighting has dwindled down. The service has changed to focus more on preventing fires.”
Simon said another change is the “360-degree shift” to assisting the ambulance service.
Regarding this role, Simon praised the modern technology that has helped the fire service save more lives while attending traffic collisions.
“In the 90s, the fire service was very different. We didn’t have the cutting equipment we have now. All we had was the Blackhawk Ram,” Simon said.
Simon began his career as a firefighter and has been crew manager at Holbeach since 2006.
Simon said of his career: “Although this job is difficult you always get a sense of satisfaction.”
Also at the awards ceremony, Spalding Station firefighters Louisa Thornton, Craig Newstead, Matthew Fox and Nick Geeson received commendations for their efforts attending a Spalding house fire in April this year.
The firefighters were assaulted by two men who tried to stop them entering the property to save the person inside.
