The chief fire officer for West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service has been recognised in the King’s Birthday Honours.

Sabrina Cohen-Hatton has received the King’s Fire Service Medal for over two decades of service.

She said: "I am absolutely delighted to receive this prestigious award.

"I am extremely proud to serve within the fire and rescue sector and being awarded for a job that I have genuinely loved doing for the last 23 years is a huge honour and a really special moment."

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Sabrina first joined South Wales Fire and Rescue Service as an 18-year-old firefighter in September 2001.

She had experienced homelessness from the age of 15 and sold the Big Issue to earn enough money to rent a small apartment in Newport.

She said: "I wanted to rescue people in a way that no one had rescued me."

From being a firefighter she then became a station manager and was the project lead for Young Dragons, a partnership of Uniformed Youth Groups which King Charles III was the patron of. 

She also took a secondment to the Welsh Government as the assistant fire and rescue advisor.

While serving as an operational fire officer, Sabrina then studied psychology at the Open University, Middlesex University and Cardiff University.

She completed a PhD in Behavioural Neuroscience and has since been awarded four honorary doctorates from UK universities, as well as being an honorary fellow and professor at Cardiff University where she co-supervises a small research group.

In 2015 Sabrina was then appointed as a deputy assistant commissioner in London Fire Brigade.

She was also seconded to Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services as chief of staff and inspection development lead.

She briefly joined Surrey Fire and Rescue Service as the interim deputy chief fire officer before being appointed as the chief fire officer in West Sussex in 2019.

She also serves as the National Fire Chief’s Council Improvement chairwoman and national lead for Working Dogs.

She said: "No matter where you start in life, it doesn’t determine where you end up, only where you start from. Know that you can break with convention – and when you do, you’re no longer constrained by it either.

“The fire service offered me the opportunity for social mobility that I hadn’t previously thought possible and I’m incredibly proud to be a public servant.

"My career has certainly been a varied and rewarding one, but receiving this honour would not have been possible without the support of my colleagues and the patience of my family; particularly my husband and daughter, as well as the inexpressible comfort I get from my dogs after a difficult day.

“I feel incredibly humbled to see my name included in the King’s Birthday Honours list, and I don’t think it will sink in for quite some time."

Sabrina is now also a published author and an ambassador for a number of international organisations including Homewards (a programme founded by Prince William and the Royal Foundation to end homelessness), The Big Issue, and StreetVet.