In July 2021 Darryl retired as Chief Fire Officer and Director of Community Protection at Hertfordshire County Council where he was responsible for the county’s Fire and Rescue Service.

Darryl started his fire service career in 1991 serving with Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service before moving to Buckinghamshire FRS. In 2011 he joined Hertfordshire FRS, rising to Deputy Chief and subsequently Chief Fire Officer in 2017. In his operational role he has attended a wide range of incidents including the Windsor Castle fire, the Buncefield Oil Terminal fire, wide area floodings, the Newgrange Care Home fire at which 35 elderly residents were rescued by the Service.

For the last decade Darryl has been closely involved in emergency control rooms and technical communications and was the National Fire Chiefs Council Strategic Lead for Operational Communications. As part of this he has been the fire service lead for the Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP) since that programme commenced in 2011. Prior to retirement Darryl chaired the UK’s 999 Liaison Committee which oversees the technical aspects of the 999 system including working closely with British Telecoms, all of the emergency services and the UK’s telecoms providers to ensure the effectiveness of the emergency call system. Darryl also established the 999 Strategic Leadership Group which ensures Government involvement in the direction of the future 999 capability for the UK.

Darryl chaired the East Coast and Hertfordshire Control Room Consortium (ECHCRC) which delivered a networked control and mobilising system for Hertfordshire, Humberside, Lincolnshire and Norfolk FRS. This innovative system has ensured that the four services have highly resilient arrangements to receive and handle emergency calls that allow each service to provide support to the others, including during spate conditions, issues affecting control room sites and staffing challenges.

At the start of the Covid pandemic Darryl established the Hertfordshire Strategic Coordinating Group (SCG) and chaired it for 18 months up to his retirement. During this period the SCG coordinated mutual support for response arrangements, worked to ensure public compliance with containment measures and established the County’s vaccination arrangements - the Large Vaccine Centre set up by Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue in Stevenage was one of the initial 7 announced for the UK by the Prime Minister in January 2021.