Page 30 - July 2020

THE SALAMANDER | July 2020
NEW COMMISSIONER FOR LONDON FIRE BRIGADE
Andy Roe – London Fire Brigade Commissioner.
Scania/Magirus M64L-AS one of the two donated by the London Feemasons
The Worshipful Company of Firefighters extends a sincere welcome to Andy Roe on his appointment as Commissioner of the London Fire Brigade earlier this year.
Andy grew up in London and, following his university education, took up a military career. He served in the 12th Regiment Royal Artillery before joining the London Fire Brigade in 2002. Promotions have included as a Crew Manager at Clerkenwell fire station. Between 2008-2012 he was a Station Manager at Wembley, Holloway and Southwark fire stations.
Andy became Deputy Assistant Commissioner in Operational Policy in late 2015 and by 2017 was promoted to the role of Assistant Commissioner. Promotion to the post of Deputy Commissioner and Director of Operations followed in 2019, prior to taking up the post of Commissioner earlier this year. During his time with the London Fire Brigade Andy has been the incident commander at a number of major incidents, including in recent years the Croydon tram derailment and Grenfell Tower.
In an interview on Sky News in June this year, Andy spoke of his immense pride in being in a role that allowed him and his firefighters to serve and protect the London public. Speaking of the current pandemic he noted that the London Fire Brigade had been able to step into spaces they would not normally occupy, whilst continuing
to deliver their usual services to the public. These are sentiments that echo those of his colleagues in other fire authorities and that are reflected in some of the articles that have been collected for this edition of Salamander. As Commissioner he also spoke about the ongoing changes in the Brigade following the lessons learnt from the Grenfell Tower tragedy. These have included the introduction of smoke hoods, already estimated to have saved the lives of 30 people rescued and brought to safety from buildings involved in smoke and fire.
We wish Andy every success in his new appointment and look forward to a good relationship with the Company and to seeing him at some of our events in the future.
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Graham Maltby QFSM Upper Warden