Firefighter was wrongly sacked after saying woman he rescued ‘looked haggard for her age’

A senior firefighter was unfairly dismissed after saying the woman he saved ‘looked exhausted for her age’, an employment tribunal has ruled.

Pete Langton has been sacked by Buckinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service for making “misogynistic and sexist” comments about the woman after saving her from a fire.

The Crew Commander (CC) said at a meeting in December 2022 that the unnamed casualty appeared ‘bad’ and ‘exhausted for his age’, leading to complaints from female colleagues.

CC Langton was also said to have coined the phrase ‘pull the pig’, which referred to a vulgar game that men played at night out, hooking up with unattractive women.

Anna Ditta, Community Safety Coordinator in the fire brigade’s prevention department, then told him to stop and claimed there were ‘no jokes’ that could have encouraged the comments.

CC claimed Langton was ‘disrespectful’ when talking about the woman and did not apologize afterwards.

She was accused of ‘particularly upsetting’ other female colleagues with her remarks and was sacked by Buckinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service.

But Watford Employment Tribunal ruled that CC Langton was unfairly dismissed because the investigation into his alleged misconduct involved a ‘lack of rigor’ and there were no ‘clear findings’ about his conduct.

CC Langton started working as a part-time firefighter with Buckinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service, but became full-time in 2006.

He was promoted to crew commander in 2020 and was working at Gerrards Cross Fire Station.

In December 2022, CC Langton was speaking at a meeting that included his watch and two civilian employees.

Ms Ditta complained about his behavior after the meeting and said he made ‘misogynistic’ and ‘sexualized’ comments.

CC Langton said he made these remarks ‘jokingly’ as a ‘clear comment’ and that he did not intend to disturb anyone at the meeting.

He said he made a comment like ‘A comment you would make about a woman in a club or out at night’.

He said they talked about the incident and Ms. Ditta asked him if he was the woman’s type.

CC Langton said he believed it was a more informal meeting, which led to his comment. He said he used the expression ‘pulling a pig’ which was ‘once widely used’.

He said Ms Ditta told him to stop and he replied: ‘No, it wasn’t very nice, but I’m sure you think the same about men left alone at the end of the night.’

CC Langton started working as a part-time firefighter with Buckinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service but became full-time in 2006. Picture: A Buckinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service fire truck

CC was suspended at the start of the investigation into Langton’s conduct. He was later fired following a disciplinary meeting that took into account the incident and previous misconduct.

It stated that he fell asleep during a presentation, was ‘rude and aggressive’ towards another employee and did not perform his role ‘with sufficient care’.

Employment Judge James Dick said CC Langton was unfairly dismissed on technical grounds because the fire service had taken into account ‘irrelevant factors’.

Judge Dick also said CC Langton had no history of similar behaviour.

Judge Dick said: ‘[The fire service] also exaggerated the seriousness of the misconduct by incorrectly taking into account what criminal lawyers would call an aggravating feature (or lack of a mitigating feature); [his] ‘The behavior was not isolated, although he had not actually done anything remotely similar.’

Judge Dick said the investigation had a ‘lack of certainty’ about what CC Langton actually said and made no ‘clear findings’.

The judge said only ‘sexualized and misogynistic’ remarks were used in the investigation and that these did not show the ‘seriousness’ of the comments used.

The judge also ruled that the ‘pull a pig’ comment was probably not made directly about the women, but that the fire brigade had wrongly assumed so.

CC Langton is currently seeking compensation for unfair dismissal.