COLIN Turner will hang up his fireman's jacket for the last time today, bringing to an end what may be longest fire fighting career ever in Craven.

He joined the service as an 18-year-old and leaves 34 years and more than 3,000 incidents later.

And Skipton has been well served by the Turner family. Brother Kelvin served 16 years, Rodney six and son Mark has 13 years service behind him - and still counting.

He joined the service when he worked for Skipton Urban District Council, who had about nine men in those days serving as retained firemen - men who have full time jobs as well as their fire brigade careers.

He has no doubt about the biggest incident in Craven in all that time - the Tap Mill fire at Cononley in 1992 attended by nine pumps and two turntable ladders.

"It was the sheer ferocity of the fire, gas cylinders were exploding through the roof and we needed every bit of equipment to bring it under control," said Mr Turner.

"But we still got all the cars out of a car showroom from underneath the fire."

He is now considering writing a book about his experiences and the changes in the force.

"I have seen everything. It goes inside your head and stops there," he said.

There have been the major blazes, tragic house fires and fatal accidents, countless accident victims cut out of vehicles, right down to the music hall image of rescuing a cat stuck up a tree.

Along with the tears of being a first hand witness to tragedy there have also been the lighter moments.

"We once went to a fire on Horse Close and a woman came down a ladder through the bedroom window. She was halfway down when her pyjamas fell down - she was mortified," smiled Mr Turner.

He paid tribute to his colleagues over the years and said the team work was vital to the running of the station.

But he says the biggest change in his 34 years has been the discipline. When he joined up and did his basic training at Birkenshaw (Skipton was then part of the West Riding brigade) he vividly remembers drill training with the instructor marching up and down the ranks with a baton and bawling orders like an army sergeant major. Now, he says, if you shout at fire fighters you could end up facing a charge of harassment.

"The discipline has gone, and it's not been for the good of the force in my opinion," he said.

During his service the fire station moved, leaving Coach Street (now housing Craven College's design and beauty studio) in 1975 for a new station on Broughton Road. Mr Turner believes the old station could have been adapted, was steeped in fire fighting tradition and was more central, thus allowing the fire fighters to get to the station from the eastern and southern side of town, where most of them live, more rapidly.

While Skipton's fire fighters are all retained, as opposed to full time, he feels that many of the public do not realise the commitment they put in.

"I'm sure the retained men are not valued as highly but they work 12 hours and then are on call - if those bleepers go then they have to race to the station, perhaps to save someone's life," he said. "Lots of these men in Skipton will turn out for more jobs than a full timer."

There is two hours training a week and however many calls. On some occasions it can mean two or three call outs in the night, then back to work again in the morning.

That takes it out of you and is the main reason Mr Turner has decided to go three years before the compulsory retirement age of 55.

"Once you reach 50 it seems to punish the body more," said Mr Turner. "When I was 45 I would not have believed it and was determined to carry on until 55, but when you start missing a night's sleep you begin to start feeling it."

After starting a new job which involves a lot of driving, he did not want to risk falling asleep at the wheel and so today marks the end of his long service.

Brother Kelvin, who became Skipton station officer, the last retained fire fighter in command of the station, before he retired in 1983, said he could only think of people like George Bottomley and Harold Hillary from the past who might have rivalled Mr Turner for length of service.

After more than 3,000 jobs, Skipton really does have a lot of reasons to thank Colin Turner.