ONE of Hampshire's longest-serving firefighters has decided to retire after 32 years.

Ray Cousins has experienced the highs and lows, saving lives in a career that stretches back through four decades, through major blazes to bin fires, rescues of people trapped in mangled cars to cats up trees.

Mainly based at Winchester, Ray, 53, a sub-officer, could have carried on to 55. "It is a wrench when you leave a job that you love and the people you have worked with. I will miss the camaraderie and the mickey-taking, no doubt.

"But I've got my grandchildren and I want to spend more time with them and on the golf course getting the handicap down."

He will carry on as a retained, or part-time, firefighter until "they kick me out."

Among the memorable jobs was the 1974 Colden Common tyre dump blaze that lasted for days and the 1987 inferno that destroyed the River Park Leisure Centre in Winchester. "There were 25 pumps there. I was in the first turnout. We tried to get in but it was too hot."

In 1973 he and now-retired colleague John Moon were both injured in an explosion in St Catherines Road, Highcliffe. They were told a child was inside the burning house. There was no child but then a gas meter under the stair exploded, burning John's hands and head.

"The job has evolved and you have to evolve with it. It has certainly changed. You don't get so many fires now. When I first started in 1973 we probably had three fires a week with big ones once a month. Now it is quiet thanks to fire prevention and the home safety checks that we do.

"We do a lot more road traffic accidents and we are getting better at them. We save more lives through RTAs than through fires now."

His colleague Sub-Officer Dave Graham, at the North Walls fire station, said: "Ray is the kind of guy that if you broke him in half he would have fire brigade written through him like a stick of rock. He has given 100 per cent to everything for the fire service in 32-and-a-half years and he still continues to do that. His care and compassion for those he works with and those he helps is an inspiration." A Cousins fire service dynasty is emerging in Winchester. His son Jamie, 23, is now based at North Walls as a full-timer and is living in the same fire service house where Ray and his family used to live.