AFTER 31 years of fighting fires in Marlborough, including some of the town's biggest blazes, Dave Smith has hung up his uniform for the last time.

But the 55-year-old grandfather will continue wearing a uniform for his job as a paramedic with the Wiltshire Ambulance Service, a task he has undertaken for 27 years.

Fire brigade colleagues and friends, including Wiltshire fire chief Neil Wright, gathered at Marlborough Town FC clubhouse to pay a rousing farewell to Mr Smith.

His mates from the Marlborough Fire Station presented him with a statue of two firefighters, while Mr Wright presented him with an engraved tankard and a long service certificate.

Mr Smith said he became a fireman because as a boy living in Marlborough he was always fascinated whenever the fire engines went out.

He said: "When I was a kid the fire engines used to come up round where I was living to do the hydrant tests.

"I started chatting to the chaps and it went from there."

He was working at the former Tenable Screw Co engineering works in Elcot Lane when he joined the retained fire service in 1972.

Over his three decades with the service, Mr Smith attended hundreds of incidents, both fires and rescue operations, including some of the town's major blazes.

He was among the 60 firefighters who fought the devastating blaze in 1975 at the former Dible and Roy furnishing shop on the lower side of the High Street where the One Stop shop is now. The furnishing company re-opened in The Parade.

On New Year's day in 1993 he was one of the firefighters who battled to halt another massive blaze that swept through an 18th century parade of six shops on the upper side of the High Street.

The scene was repeated in June 1998 when fire gutted shops and flats in the High Street on the south side of the town hall.

Mr Smith, who ended his career as a sub officer, said: "After 31 years in the fire service and at the age of 55 I felt I had been in it for long enough."

His work as a firefighter and with the ambulance service was sometimes distressing but he said: "If you have a sense of humour you can deal with it."

He will also be kept in touch with activities at the Marlborough Fire Station by his son-in-law Ben Hastings, who is one of the retained crew.