Peter Crook is awarded the Queen’s Fire Service Medal

Published: 03 January, 2012

Group Manager Peter Crook is delighted to have been awarded the Queen's Fire Service Medal in the New Year’s Honours list, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to international search and rescue during his 32 year career with Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service.

The Queen's Fire Service Medal is awarded by Her Majesty the Queen of England to those members of the Fire Service who have exhibited conspicuous devotion to duty.

Peter, currently a Group Manager at Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service Headquarters in Eastleigh, joined the Service in 1979 as a firefighter at Eastleigh Fire Station. Pete also served at Training Centre, Headquarters, Gosport, Copnor, Southsea, Redbridge, Basingstoke and St Marys Fire Stations.

Peter has over 32 years of operational service in Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service and continues with these duties, most recently attending nine emergency calls over the 48 hours covering Christmas Eve and Christmas Day!

Peter is aged 55, has been married to Beverley for 28 years and has two children, Robert who is 20 and Elizabeth who is 13.

Peter’s International Work

Peter joined the UK Fire Service Search and Rescue Team in 1991 when it was formed and has stayed involved ever since.
He deployed to the Montserrat volcano in 1996 and 1997, training search and rescue teams.

He deployed again to the enormous 1999 Turkish earthquake and was directly involved in rescuing a lady trapped for 3 days under a collapsed apartment block.

Following the 9/11 attacks in 2001 Peter also contributed significantly to the development of a new Urban Search and Rescue capability for the UK.

He next deployed to the earthquake on Boxing Day 2003 to Iran as the UK Operations Commander.
Peter has organised a series of annual international exercises in Hampshire from 2004 onwards, including in 2006 and 2009 events where the UN accredited the UK team as a qualified ‘Heavy’ international USAR team.

In more recent years Peter has been the elected National Coordinator of the UK Fire Service International Search and Rescue Team and has been instrumental in developing UKISAR into one of the world’s leading teams.

This development allowed the team to successfully deploy to the 2009 Sumatra and 2011 New Zealand earthquakes with Peter as the UK Team Leader. The team also deployed to the Haiti earthquake and Japanese Tsunami when Peter led the supporting UK coordination role.

When not directly involved in deployments Peter and the UK ISAR team are very active members of the international search and rescue community. Peter is a mentor of other countries teams helping them achieve international standards and is a member of several international working groups helping to develop systems and protocols to improve international rescue capabilities.

Peter used to be a very active swimmer, water polo player and triathlete winning several medals at the World Firefighter Games and European Fire Service Swimming Championships in previous years. Commitments to his children and work combined with age and a stiff back has curtailed most of this but Peter plans a comeback sometime in the future.

Peter said: “I am extremely lucky to be doing what I do, it is a privilege and I will continue all the time I have something to offer.”

Bookmark this

Fire service rollout achieves another major milestone
Scotland's eight fire and rescue services have become the first in the UK to begin operating a new state-of-the-art digital communication system. Airwave, now operational in over 1,100 fire service vehicles and 368 fire stations in Scotland, is part of a UK-wide project to provide the fire and rescue service with the equipment needed to respond to major emergencies including terrorism. When fully rolled out in July 2010, Airwave will be the new national communications service for the FRSs of England, Scotland and Wales.
An alternative for DABDA
I’ve caught myself dealing with death a lot these days, it’s a part of the job of course. We are faced with dealing with people on the worst days of their lives and frequently that turns out to be the last day of their lives. I’m finding it hard to prevent it from affecting me. I create a thin shell of machismo and fabricated callousness, which protects a soft center of sadness and melancholy that threatens my happy state of being.
Reflections on the events of April 15, 2013 - Boston Marathon Bombing
'We are fickle, stupid beings with poor memories and a great gift for self-destruction.' ~ Suzanne Collins

I’m not exactly sure why that quote came to mind as I began to endure the bombardment of American media related to the events of April 15, but it did. And I kept coming back to it as I saw the press cover the event and stumble through ‘up to the minute’ updates and ‘this just in’ alerts. The more that I held that quote up, against this backdrop of human suffering the more that the meaning began to materialize and the words, which at first glance seem bitter and cynical, started to transform into something that I’ve observed my entire career.
CSB deploys to a massive explosion and fire at fertilizer plant near Waco, Texas.
A large investigation team from the US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) is deploying to the scene of a massive fire and explosion at the West Fertilizer Plant located in West, Texas, north of Waco.
Rosenbauer launches a new short firefighting boot range – Twister-cross
With its new Twister-cross, Rosenbauer has launched a short boot with a Class C shaft. The boot is suitable for all firefighting and rescue operations and has EN 15090:2012 F2A HI3 CI AN SRA certification instead of the 280mm shaft length stipulated in Austria by ÖBFV-RL KS – 06. The new boot meets the requirements of both countries’ fire and rescue services. In fact, it differs from all other fire service boots because it is shorter than conventional boots.

Sign up: eMagazine & eNewsletter

The latest issues in your inbox.

Company Profiles

Solberg – the new standard in firefighting foam

Solberg is the one-stop resource for firefighting foam concentrates and custom-designed foam suppression systems hardware. With our unique offering of environmentally sustainable fluorosurfactant and fluoropolymer-free foam concentrates, and traditional firefighting foam concentrates, Solberg leads the industry in firefighting foam innovation.

Angus Fire – global innovation in fire fighting

Angus Fire is a global leader in fire fighting technology with a long history of pioneering innovation. The company occupies a unique world position in the development and manufacture of fire hose, foam concentrates and fire fighting equipment.

Holmatro - Mastering Power

Holmatro Rescue Equipment develops, manufactures, sells and services high-pressure hydraulic, pneumatic and mechanical rescue equipment. With a comprehensive dealer network on all continents, manufacturing plants in the Netherlands (head office) and USA, and sales offices in China and UK, we supply our products and services to fire and rescue organizations all over the world.

Dr Sthamer - Hamburg: foam fights fire

Dr Sthamer – Hamburg, has been developing and manufacturing state-of-the art firefighting foams since the 1920’s. Having been founded in 1886 by Dr Richard Sthamer, we are still proudly owned and managed by the Sthamer family. Our base is still at the original site where we started in, on the banks of the Bille River in Hamburg Germany.