Posthumous award for female firefighter - Fleur Lombard, Britain's first woman firefighter to die on peacetime duty, has been posthumously awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal.
She died in a Bristol supermarket fire in Staple Hill 1996 started by an arsonist.
Fleur Lombard was separated from her colleagues and died in the intense heat.
A security guard was jailed last year for manslaughter and arson.
Two of Fleur Lombard's colleagues have been honoured for trying to save her.
Rob Seaman, 29, and Pat Foley, 33, went into the blazing supermarket to recover the 21-year-old firefighter's body. Mr Seaman receives the George Medal, and Mr Foley receives the Queen's Commendation for Brave Conduct.
Avon Fire Brigade said it was 'proud and privileged' to hear of the awards, announced from Buckingham Palace. Fleur Lombard was caught in a 'flashover': the explosive moment in a fire when many objects burst into flame because of the intense heat.
At the time, she was heading out of the supermarket with Mr Seaman. Although disorientated, he managed to scramble to safety. But realising Fleur Lombard had not escaped, he immediately went back into the fire with Pat Foley at his side.
They found Ms Lombard's body just feet from the main entrance - only a few steps from safety. Mr Seaman said: 'I really do have mixed emotions over the award. Obviously I'm pleased to receive it, but it does bring it all back.
I am also a little embarrassed to be picked out. What I did was pure instinct.'
Mr Foley, who trained and joined the Avon Fire Brigade with Fleur in 1994, said: 'Anything that relates to the incident brings back sad memories. 'It would have been nice to be receiving an award for saving Fleur instead.'
Security guard Martin Cody, 21, from Bristol, was jailed for seven-and-a-half years for manslaughter and arson.
She was struck by falling debris as she and a colleague entered Leo's supermarket in Staple Hill, near Bristol, which had been set alight in an arson attack.
Robert Seaman was awarded the George Medal for bravery for returning to the burning building when he realised his partner had not followed him out. Another firefighter, Pat Foley, who also went into the blazing supermarket to help, was awarded the Queen's Commendation for Bravery.
Fleur Lombard, 21, was caught in a 'flashover' after explosions in the fire at Leo's supermarket in Staple Hill, Bristol, in February last year. She was one of only eight women among Avon's 700 firefighters and the first woman to die in peacetime service in Britain.
Mr Justice Tuckey told Cody that he had escaped a life sentence for the manslaughter only because psychiatrists were unable to say he posed a continuing serious risk to the public.
The jury that convicted Cody, of Knowle, Bristol, was told that he lived in a fantasy world and had started the fire to relieve his boredom on his first day on duty. He had telephoned a security firm colleague to gloat about the fire, saying: 'It is a good one.'
In mitigation yesterday, Cody's counsel, David Spens, QC, said he was still very young and had no history of starting fires or any other criminal behaviour. It was accepted by the prosecution that he had not intended to endanger life or was reckless in that respect. He never envisaged anyone might be put at risk.
Although the jury heard that he was seen punching the air with his clenched fist and shouting 'Yes' after the fire started, there was no evidence of any inappropriate behaviour after he realised someone had been injured.
'Once the dreadful news reached him, he became solemn and there was no exhilaration,' said counsel. One psychiatric report was unable to identify the reasons for Cody's behaviour or comment on his future risk, while the other speculated that he might have been driven by emotional conflict.
The judge said it seemed the explanation for the offences lay in factors such as uncertainty about his job, his parents' disapproval of his girlfriend, and anxiety caused because his girlfriend had had one miscarriage and was expected to suffer another. 'It is likely that with the passage of time you will not be driven by emotional conflict into the sort of behaviour with which I am concerned,' Mr Justice Tuckey said. 'But if you are, you will be more able to resist it the older you become.'
He ordered that the seven-and-a-half-year sentences for arson and manslaughter be served concurrently. The parents of Miss Lombard said yesterday that Cody should not have been jailed. Roger Lombard, 53, said he needed psychiatric help, not a spell inside prison.
He feared that Cody could do it again after his release from prison. 'Putting him away for this length of time is not going to solve the problem. I am disappointed with the sentence because we remain convinced that he has some sort of serious psychotic problem despite the fact that the psychiatrist has been unable to confirm that.
'I hope his family doesn't have to go through the trauma that we have had. When Cody gets out he represents a threat to society. If he does it again somebody will have that responsibility on their hands.'
He also criticised Cody's barrister. 'His counsel has lodged an appeal today, so this whole case will go on,' he said.
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