In 1991 I was in senior rank and tasked with putting together a major commemorative event at St Pauls Cathedral in the presence of Princess Diana and the two young princes, William and Harry. Some 80 ‘blitz’ veteran firemen and firewomen were invited to attend and to march in the emergency services and military parade from Aldersgate to St Pauls, a distance of just over a mile. The book ends a year after Grenfell when Kennedy-Macfoy decided to quit his career as a firefighter.

Cohen-Hatton loves the metaphor of a jigsaw for the eternal piecing together of information that is an incident commander’s life, but a reader trying to do the same with the memoir elements of her book may struggle. Not all the pieces are present and presumably the missing ones are the result of her own risk analysis. I especially enjoyed the author’s recollection of a heroic episode on honeymoon in Gran Canaria, where he took it upon himself to help out the local bomberos to stave off a blaze, prioritising the health and safety of others even in the midst of enjoying an idyllic time on holiday with his new wife. The author was detailed to lead a crew from Battersea but disregarded that duty to join a crew from another fire station. David continually supports the fire service industry today, with I Was a London Firefighter supporting the Massey Trust, and all proceeds from London’s Firefighters going to the Fire Service Charity, Firemen Remembered.Do you have any opinions on why there are less women in firefighting? How can we encourage women and girls to go into a career as a firefighter?

In my opinion there could have been more reports on different jobs; the story focused a lot on his emotional situation during the years and he also mentioned and described the time when he joined the Police to bridge over the time before he could join the fire brigade. And I was like "Okay... I thought this book is about a firefighter?". Okay, it's part of his life, but I'm really not that interested in this part. So, please, more firefighting! One small place to start could be renaming Fireman Sam. Her daughter, who would like to be an astronaut firefighter, putting out fires in space, used to rail at the TV, “It’s not fireman, it’s firefighter!” I’d guess she heard that from someone else. “I 100% think it should be Firefighter Sam. Language makes a difference,” she says. Before she became a firefighter Sue had previously done office work but wanted to do something more active. When she saw an advert in a local newspaper to train as a firefighter, she decided to give it a go. No firefighter should ever turn down an urgent request from another crew at a large-scale incident like this. It was my duty to go where I was needed...'

Uniform

Cotton had gone into the tower to gain an understanding of the nightmare confronting her colleagues. “I could see the conditions when we went in, the severity of the fire. The debris was raining down on us. I knew I was committing them to an extreme situation, and in those situations things aren’t always predictable and that was very frightening.”

Considering the writing, the author has portrayed his role at this incident in such an ambiguous way to lead readers to believe he was part of the initial deployment. For instance:Running through the book is a series of gripping historical narratives subtitled ‘Yesteryear’s Fires’, depicting the heroic professionalism of firefighters confronted by truly harrowing disasters. Some of these remain all-too-familiar, such as the King’s Cross fire of 1987 which claimed the lives of 31 people; others, no less terrible, have faded into distant memory. The book ends with a fresh and compelling description of a horrifying tragedy that no one can have forgotten: 2017’s Grenfell Tower fire. Her interview and assessment took place at the Brigades’ old Lambeth Headquarters on Albert Embankment. “I remember there was another woman at the interview with me and it was a source of comfort knowing there would be two of us. But when they phoned me afterwards to let me know I had passed they said I was the only woman.

Fire-floats and fireboats-a history of London’s firefighting craft. This really was a voyage of discovery for me and a book that I am very proud of. It might have taken ‘niche`’ to a new level but unearthing many of the innovations that put firefighters onto the river took both detection and joining some of the dots. The book not only helps raise much needed funds for one of central figures, the fire-float Massey Shaw, but details its amazing history right up to the present day. How have I found my time with Austin Macauley? Well, in a word… interesting. For those that research Austin Macauley Publisher (AM) you might find the phase ‘vanity publishers’ applied to it. It’s a word used to describe something that is done with the aim of getting praise, fame or approval at a price. However, it, and AM’s values, could not be farther from the truth. AM is there to support and guide you from your submission to publication.The Massey Shaw fireboat is an octogenarian. Like others in their 80’s not everything is as fit and well-oiled as things were in their 20’s or even mid-40s. The old girl needs constant maintenance and upkeep. That all cost money and as the most iconic fireboat in the UK I could not think of a better cause than my writing supporting the Massey Shaw Education Trust, its aims and, maybe, seeing this historic craft reach her 100 years and beyond. There wasn't really a description of the places he has been - I think everything I could imagine was because I've seen some of the pictures of the events on TV. Being a firefighter is very much a team effort,” she said “You can’t achieve anything unless you work together. I worked with some fantastic people and acquired a range of skills, from first aid and fire safety to driving a fire engine and specialist rescue techniques like rope rescue.