Graham Rice

Said the following about Barry Griffiths:

“Great Western Railway (GWR) is one of the biggest rail franchises in the UK, part of the First Group of companies, operating the Western network since 1996, rebranding ourselves as GWR in 2015. We employ over 6000 people across our network and we carry more than one and a half million customers over two million single journeys on 10,000 services every week. People are at the heart of our business and our ethos is that we are 'greater together'.

Barry Griffiths whilst working his rostered shift at a station was alerted to a Customer Accident onboard 2C49 by the train driver at 15.16 as it arrived into the station.

Barry quickly boarded this service and made his way to the rear door of coach C where he was met by a member of GWR traincrew who was assisting a female passenger in a great deal of distress.

The lady in question had doused herself in White Spirit and ignited the flammable liquid with a match. The flames had just been extinguished and Barry immediately called 999 at 15.18.

Whilst waiting for the Emergency Services to arrive Barry grabbed a pack of bottled water and assisted GWR Manager Sally Leach and a passenger who had medical experience in pouring water over the lady's burns to keep them cool.

He then went to meet the Air Ambulance keeping other passengers away from the incident and directed them to the casualty.

Once the casualty had been treated and removed Barry then assisted the Guards Manager Helen Goodson in cleaning up the train before finally dispatching it at 16.04. He then remained available to assist passengers and cleaned up the Station Platform finally booking off to go home at 16.30.“