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The Isle of Wight's Chief Fire Officer has paid tribute to crew manager Paul Fletcher who died in the early hours of this morning (Monday 24).
Father-of-two Mr Fletcher was pronounced dead at St Mary's Hospital, Newport, shortly after attending a call to the nearby HM Prison, Isle of Wight, an incident which turned out to be a false alarm.
Chief Fire Officer Paul Street said Mr Fletcher, 39, of Newchurch, had been a credit to himself and the service since joining in April 2004.
"Paul cared passionately about the service and about serving Island residents," Mr Street said.
"He distinguished himself in several areas notably training where his work was of such high quality that earlier this year he received the GO Union Learning Representative of the Year Award.
"In addition Paul played an active role in the rapid improvement of the service in recent years and was enthusiastic about continuing that improvement through the Model for Change Project.
"Paul was also very active and highly successful in working with the Fire Brigades Union nationally, regionally and locally starting as brigade secretary and moving on to the post of regional chairman.
"Paul will be sadly missed as both a colleague and a friend."
Mr Fletcher joined the IW Fire and Rescue Service in April 2004 as a fire-fighter, having served previously with the police. He became a crew manager in May this year.
He leaves a wife Lisa and two children, a daughter of seven and a son of four.
Police, who are carrying out an investigation on behalf of the IW Coroner, confirmed that the death is not being treated as suspicious.
