AN ILMINSTER firefighter who has served the town for more than three decades, saving hundreds of lives and earning a citizen’s award in the process, has retired.

Andy Miller has been a retained firefighter in Ilminster for the past 32 years until he stood down last month.

Cllr Val Keitch, the mayor of Ilminster, presented Andy with a citizen’s award earlier this year, and has thanked Andy for his years of service to the town.

She said: “Andy Miller gave great service to the people of Ilminster for many years as a Firefighter. It was a pleasure to present him with a Citizen award. His service is an example to us all and I am very proud to be part of his retirement celebrations.”

Andy became a retained firefighter in Ilminster on June 25, 1985, after he had moved to the town to live with his wife, Nicky.

To help remember his time in the service, Andy has kept a folder of the times that his incidents have appeared in the Chard and Ilminster News.

He said: “I don’t know when I first wanted to be a firefighter, maybe always. I was so chuffed when I got in.

“I remember when I first started. I got my kit and my pager and the first week we didn’t sleep. Everybody is nervous to start with.”

A lot has changed in the time he has served the town, including Somerset Fire Service joining Devon, and the types of incidents have changed with an increasing percentage of call outs to car crashes.

His first fatal fire came in 1986, with his first ‘difficult’ crash coming in 1987. In 1988, Andy and his crew received the first of two awards for animal rescue, this one following an incident in Ilton.

In 2003, he was promoted to station manager, and in 2005 he received his first long service award after 20 years in the job. His role later changed to watch manager and he was required to have at least 60 per cent quarterly attendance, but Andy’s was always in the high 90s.

Andy added: “I could not have done this job without the support from Nicky and the family and friends, so a big thanks to them.

“Thank you to Gooch & Housego for releasing me from work for all this time and supporting the community, and continuing to do so as one of the new recruits is basically replacing me and is being released which is good news.

“The reasons why I joined the fire service was to serve the community and help where I can. The service drum it into you and you do it anyway to save lives, prevent escalation and damage to property, and humanitarian reasons. I added one more, to make a difference.

“We dip in and out of people’s lives every day and if I walk away from an incident and have done my best to make a difference in any way I tell myself I have done a good job.”