Five plaques honour firefighters who died on duty

A firefighter who died while on duty during the 1940s is among five men to be honoured by new memorial plaques at a fire station in South Yorkshire.

Enoch Leadbetter, 37, who was married with four children, was killed by carbon monoxide poisoning while sheltering from the cold in a pump-towing car which leaked the deadly gas as the vehicle relayed water to Highmoor Colliery in 1943.

Leadbetter's name is on one of the red plaques to be placed inside Rotherham fire station by the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), with a special ceremony also being held.

Several other memorial plaques to fallen colleagues had already been placed elsewhere in South Yorkshire, with up to 20 more planned, the FBU said.

The FBU has been placing red plaques around the country since 2017, with the concept inspired by English Heritage's blue plaque scheme, which marks places linked to historic and cultural figures.

Another of the firefighters honoured by a plaque at the fire station in Rotherham is 60-year-old Charles Busby.

He had retired from the regular fire service but was a member of the Auxiliary Fire Service, and died in August 1940 during an air raid on the British Oxygen Works on Armer Street in Rotherham.

Other plaques remember 41-year-old John Pollard, who died in July 1888 from a cardiac arrest on his way to a serious fire on High Street in Rotherham, and 22-year-old Dennis Thompson, of the Rotherham County Fire Brigade, who died in February 1956 following a fall at a training school.

A fifth plaque honours Patrick Dalton, 25, who died from his injuries in an appliance road accident in Rotherham while responding to a fire call at Silverwood Colliery in August 1958.

Alex Wilson, the FBU's local organiser in South Yorkshire, said the plaques were a poignant reminder of the sacrifices made by firefighters.

"It reminds us in the fire service that despite the passage of time and the improvements in health and safety and PPE and procedure, our profession of firefighting remains sometimes perilous," he said.

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