Julian Beinhorn has retired from his post as commander of Devizes fire station, after 33 years of service to the local community.

Mr Beinhorn, who is 55 next month, carried the wreath on behalf of the Devizes Fire Service at Sunday's Remembrance Parade.

Mr Beinhorn was born in Rowde and spent all his working life in Devizes as a motor mechanic, working for Harold Hewitt's Devizes Motor Company, Blue Star Garage on the Green and his present employers, Talbot Motor Repairs in Gains Lane.

But it is his work as a volunteer firefighter for which he will always be remembered.

He began as a member of the Auxiliary Fire Service and joined Devizes fire station, becoming station commander ten years ago.

Just a few weeks after he started as a trainee firefighter in 1977, the first fire strike began. Then, as with the more recent dispute, the retained crews worked on regardless.

Things have changed considerably since Mr Beinhorn first signed up.

He said: "After a big fire you would go back to the station and have a debrief, everyone sitting around and talking about how it went.

"Now, a team of counsellors comes in and talk you through it. It is just a different way of doing things.

"But one thing has never changed, the friendship and camaraderie of the crews."

Mr Beinhorn attended between 250 and 300 incidents every year, among them the fire at Sleight Cottages, near Devizes, during the national fire strike last year when a mother and her three children died.

Mr Beinhorn said: "By the time we got there the house was well alight and there was nothing anyone could have done to save the people in that fire."

Mr Beinhorn has seen colleagues injured while attending blazes. A collapsing wall just missed a fireman during the fire in the Polly Tea Rooms, Marlborough, in the 1970s.

Then his close friend, John Ovenden suffered two crushed vertebrae after falling from a ladder during a fire at Hinchley's electrical contractors at Southgate House, Devizes.

Mr Beinhorn said the main difficulty faced by the volunteer force is caused by employers who are not prepared to let their staff suddenly disappear.

"I can't really understand their attitude. It could be their premises that are on fire and they would expect us to turn out," he said.