A LONG-serving firefighter hung up his uniform for the final time this month as the last retained station officer in County Durham.

Station Officer Dave Hodgson became a retained firefighter at Barnard Castle fire station 25 years ago. He has been station officer for the past ten years, a post which is no longer available at retained fire stations.

"They've been waiting for me to retire all this time," said Mr Hodgson. "There are now only three station officers in the county at Darlington, Durham and Peterlee."

Mr Hodgson became a retained firefighter, as his day job was a fire officer at the town's GlaxoSmithKline factory. He said: "All of the fire officers at Glaxo were retained fire fighters.

"I must have been to thousands of call-outs over the years. Some of which were quite big incidents.

"I've attended three aircraft crashes and one of the most memorable incidents was when we rescued 16 people who were trapped on an island near High Force. The river had flooded suddenly and the story made most of the national papers."

Mr Hodgson, plans to spend his retirement walking and playing golf.

He said: "You always have to be within five minutes of the station, so I haven't been able to play golf for years.

"I'll miss the excitement of the service, but I won't miss being called out of bed on a cold night."

Mr Hodgson's replacement will be Sub-Officer Derek Miller. He said: "I'm looking forward to the challenge. I'm lucky that this station has been run really well and efficiently. All I've got to do is carry on Dave's good work."