Ben Taylor – Firefighter

Ben joined HIWFRS as a firefighter in 2021. Prior to joining the service, Ben served as a firefighter in the Royal Air Force in both the United Kingdom and Cyprus. After leaving the military he wanted to continue to use and develop the skills he had learned, whilst also being able to help make his local community safer. Ben is now stationed at Southsea and is also an on-call firefighter at Eastleigh.

Ben has been a member of FireREACH since he started, which is a network that primarily focuses on religion, ethnicity, and cultural heritage. He recently became Vice-Chair of the network in 2022. He is passionate about being part of a network which provides opportunities for individuals within the Service to come together, share ideas, provide peer support to one another and drive Service improvements for equality, diversity & inclusion.

Ben is also a member of “Southsea Reds” which is a group of firefighters on Southsea Red Watch who take on different fitness challenges to raise money for charities. One of their most impressive challenges was their 24-hour ladder climb in which they climbed 30,000 metres, which is the combined height of the 3 highest mountains in the world and the 3 highest in the UK. In 2021 from their challenges “Southsea Reds” raised £6500 for The Firefighters Charity and Leukaemia Care.