The first winner of the Fire Investigations UK Development Award received her prize for the essay competition, improvements in Fire Investigation. The award winner is 19-year-old Victoria Brand of Bridgend College of Further Education.

Victoria was studying for the Level 3 BTEC Award in Forensic Science when FI-UK’s Mike Flanagan treated her and her fellow students to a presentation on fire investigation. It was Mike who initiated the award on behalf of FI-UK (LLP) challenging students to reflect on what they had learned and to explain how they thought fire investigation could be improved. Victoria’s entry was the winning submission according to Mike, for “…it’s engaging and interesting style and content.”

Victoria’s award is the first in the UK for FI-UK and it is hoped to repeat the success of the award next year. FI-UK Partner, Peter Mansi said “This type of award is designed to encourage and attract young people to pursue a career in fire investigation and allied forensic disciplines, based on knowledge and understanding, and not by the glamorous images portrayed by the TV. Victoria is a worthy winner of our first award of this kind.”

Victoria received £50 worth of book tokens to support her continued studies in fire scene investigation