Dany Cotton joined London Fire Brigade (LFB) in 1988 at age 18 and she was one of 30 women firefighters out of a workforce of 9,000. She worked her way up through the ranks and, in 2000, was the first woman Station Officer in the UK. Cotton served in numerous roles and departments, including the role of Director for Safety and Assurance prior to her promotion in 2017 where she became the first woman Commissioner of the LFB in its’ 151-year history. She has attended many high-profile operational incidents including the Clapham train crash in 1988, just a few months after leaving training school. She was in charge of the Cutty Sark fire in 2007, and a 40-pump fire on the day of the Olympic closing ceremony in 2012. During her first six months in the role of commissioner she led the Brigade during major incidents including the unprecedented fire at Grenfell Tower and the terrorist incidents at London Bridge and Finsbury Park and she retired at the end of 2019. In 2004, Cotton was the first woman in history to be awarded the Queen's Fire Service Medal for Distinguished Service, in 2010 she was named by The Independent as one of the "100 Women Who Changed the World," and in 2011 was voted among the most influential women in London. In 2015 she won the Public Service Category at the First Women Awards and in 2017 she received the Women of the Year Leadership Award.