AN East Lancashire firefighter is celebrating 30 years of saving lives.

Tony Gaffney, 48, who lives in Wilpshire and is based at Darwen, is celebrating his 30th year in the job this week, but as a young lad growing up in Blackburn, he was told it was a job he would never be able to do.

He said: “When I told my grandad I wanted to be a fireman, he said: ‘By the time you grow up, they’ll have fire-proof houses. There won’t be any firemen’. I remember feeling more than a bit deflated at that.”

The former St Wilfrid’s pupil was 18 and part-way through an engineering apprenticeship when he made a “coin-toss” decision on whether to join the police force or the fire service instead. Luckily the coin made the right decision for him and he says he has never looked back since.

“Obviously if you’ve been in the job for this length of time you will have seen an awful lot of tragedy and people dead and dying, but over the years the fire service has made a huge difference to people’s lives and things are getting so much better.

“What we do now is more preventative and by fitting free fire alarms in Lancashire homes. There’s no telling how much tragedy this is helping to prevent.

“We quite literally will never know just how many fires will have been stopped by someone getting an early warning, and turning off their grill pan. It’s fantastic.”

As well as the approach of the fire service, Tony says he has also seen huge changes in the equipment used and in the culture of the fire service as a whole.

He said: “Now we’re all trained in water rescue. We have the latest gear, and quite rightly, female firefighters are the norm. When I started it was a very male-dominated atmosphere and we just had to make do with the kit we had for whatever job came up.

“There’s a difference in even the most everyday jobs. In the past if someone was trapped in a car, we had to stand and wait for a specialist vehicle. Now we have the cutting equipment ready to use on the fire appliance.”

Tony says the job that most sticks in his mind was the rescue of a Darwen family three years ago.

When the fire service arrived on the scene, a woman, her 18-month-old baby and teenage son were trapped inside.

Tony said: “That was memorable because we thought they were going to die but we managed to get them all out and re-united with the children’s dad who was waiting outside.”

To have free 10-year smoke alarms fitted in your home contact Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service on 0800 169 1125 or visit the website below.