AFTER 8,000 'shouts' as a Forest firefighter David Pegler is hanging up his helmet – and his bicycle clips!

Famed for his turn of speed on two wheels as he hares from his Lydney home or work to the fire station in town, Dave admits to one or two close shaves with pedestrians.

"There have been a couple of occasions when a siren might have been useful on the bike," he jokes.

Encouraged to join up by firefighter John Mills, Dave officially joined the ranks on March 1, 1976. His first call-out was to the James R Crompton paper mills - the place where he worked!

"John had told me a lot about 'the fire service and I was looking forward to it. He said there would be just a couple of call-outs a week but I was in for a shock. 1976 was the year of the drought and the very hot summer. We had call after call, sometimes leaving one fire to go straight to the next.

"Throughout July, August and September we averaged between 80 and 100 calls a month. The calls never stopped," he said.

In his 35 years as a frontline firefighter Dave reckons to have attended 8,000 call-outs and 1,800 drills.

"It has been part of my life so I'm obviously going to miss it, though I will not be sorry to avoid the 2am call on a freezing January morning. But once a week there is a keep fit night at the station so I will be going to that and obviously it will keep me in touch," he said.

The biggest fire he was involved with was a blaze which destroyed a butter warehouse at Newport and he vividly recalls the non-stop part played by the brigade in the Gloucestershire floods of 2007.

Dave and his colleagues enjoyed a get-together at his final drill last week. On his last day of duty he drove the engine for the final time when a call-out was received to an incident in Sedbury.

There will be a social evening for Dave, his family and colleagues at Lydney Rugby Club later this month.