By Tom Pugh
The Press Association
LONDON — Firefighters face an ever-present risk of death or serious injury.
Eight firefighters died on duty in 2007 alone, the worst year since 1985, according to the Fire Brigades Union (FBU)
From 1985 to 1994, 14 were killed and 22 died between 1977 and 1984, figures from the FBU and the Firefighters Memorial Charitable Trust showed.
In the five years up to 2007, at least 13 firefighters were killed at blazes.
Amid concern at the mounting death toll, the FBU last year commissioned research from the Labour Research Department to find out why.
Several factors were identified, including firefighters being committed to emergencies with inadequate risk assessments and a neglect of up-to-date central guidance on firefighter safety.
Here are details of some of the firefighters who have been killed in the UK:
In July this year, Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue Service firefighter Ewan Williamson, 35, died while tackling an early morning blaze at a pub in Edinburgh after a floor collapsed.
In 2007, Darren Yates-Badley, 24, John Averis, 27, Ashley Stephens, 20, and Ian Reid, 44, were killed following a warehouse blaze in Atherstone on Stour, Warwickshire.
In 2005, Michael Millar, 26, from Stevenage, and Jeff Wornham, 28, from Royston, both Hertfordshire, died trying in vain to save a woman trapped by a blaze in a 17-storey block of flats on Silam Road, Stevenage, in February.
In 2004, Bill Faust, 36, and Adam Meere, 27, became the first firefighters to be killed in action in London in 11 years.
They died after being seriously hurt while tackling a blaze at a shop and flats in Bethnal Green, east London, in July.
Mr Meere only finished his training two months before his death and had joined Whitechapel fire station, east London.
Father-of-three Mr Faust had been with the brigade since 1997 and played a key role in raising money for charity.
Also in 2004, father-of-two Richard Jenkins, 28, died when he was engulfed in a fireball seconds after arriving at a fire at a disused community centre in the Ely area of Cardiff in May.
In November 2003, part-time firefighter Joe McCloskey, 50, died after falling through the roof of a storeroom at Gorteen House Hotel in Limavady, Co Londonderry. He had served as a part-time firefighter at Dungiven station for 25 years.
Also in 2003, off-duty firefighter Alex Kent died trying to help members of his family escape from a fire at their house in East Sussex.
In October 2002, experienced firefighter Bob Miller, a 44-year-old father-of-two, died after falling through a floor while searching for occupants in a smoke-filled building in Leicester.
On February 1 1996, part-timers Kevin Lane, 32, and Stephen Griffin, 42, died at a house fire in Blaina, south Wales. After pulling one child from the building they got caught in a delayed backdraught when returning to search for a second.
On February 4 1996, Fleur Lombard became the first woman firefighter to die on duty in peace-time Britain. She was struck by falling debris as she and a fireman entered Leo’s supermarket in Broad Street, Staple Hill, on the northern outskirts of Bristol.
The 21-year-old Sunderland-born firefighter was posthumously awarded the Queen’s Gallantry Medal in recognition of her bravery.
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