Firefighters' honour guard for dead colleagues

Published on Wednesday 7 November 2007 00:14

FIREFIGHTERS formed a guard of honour last night as the bodies of three of their colleagues were retrieved from a burnt-out warehouse. Two hundred firefighters and about 30 relatives lined the roadside outside the vegetable packing warehouse to pay a silent tribute to Darren Yates-Badley, 24, Ashley Stephens, 20, and John Averis, 27.

Their colleague Ian Reid, 44, also died when the blaze broke out at the plant in Atherstone on Stour, Warwickshire on Friday night.

Among the crowd were members of the Women's Royal Volunteer Service, ambulance staff and police who stood side by side with fire crews as the bodies were driven away from the site in a black van, flanked by two police outriders.

William Brown, Warwickshire county fire officer said: "We've now got all four colleagues who we've lost in this tragic incident. Our hearts and our minds and our thoughts are with the families and once again we offer them our condolences at this very sad time for them.

"This fire will be marked forever in Warwickshire."

Police are still treating the blaze as suspicious.