Assistant Chief Fire Officer Ben Allen

Ben became a Hampshire firefighter at Basingstoke in 2002, before spells at St Mary’s and Redbridge in Southampton, and then as a watch manager at Eastleigh.

During his time with the Service, Ben has worked on a number of different projects focusing on crewing models, software implementation and organisation reviews.

He has worked within both our recruitment and data management departments, based at our Service Headquarters in Eastleigh.

He returned to St Mary’s as a station manager prior to his role in leading the whole Southampton and New Forest group.

In 2024, Ben oversaw our People and Organisational Development directorate as an area manager, whilst becoming a non-executive director for 3SFire.

Ben was appointed Assistant Chief Fire Officer in January 2026 and currently leads on our Response, Specialist Capability and Improvement functions.

Away from his busy work life, most of Ben’s spare time is spent ferrying his kids about!