After 25 years of fighting fires, cutting people out of horrific car crashes and attending suicide calls, Walton firefighter Andy Begg finally broke down in tears after rescuing a cat that found itself wedged between two garage walls.

Surrey Comet:

Watch commander Andy Begg took one final ride in an engine. 

Retiring watch commander Mr Begg, 55, waved a final goodbye to the crew at Walton fire station yesterday with a tear in his eye as he fondly recalled the moment when the sheepish moggy trapped itself in the tight spot.

He said: “I thought, 25 years in the job and this is going to be my first failure – and it’s a cat. I was in pieces. I don’t even like cats.”

Luckily, after sedation from the vet and a whole lot of cooking oil, the Walton crew managed to pry the feline out of the gap, with only scrapes and bruises to show.

Despite having tackled blazes far and wide since becoming a firefighter at the age of 30, watch commander Mr Begg describes that particular job as “truly horrible”.

During a quarter-of-a-century in the fire service Mr Begg has worked at Staines fire station for five years, Epsom for three years, Esher for 12 years before settling at Walton.

Wiping away tears he also recalled a crash that his former Esher crew attended on the A3 which killed two horses and nearly killed an 18-year-old girl.

He said: “I wish I’d been there with them. I’ve lost count of how many dead bodies I’ve seen, people burnt in fires, people in suicides and car crashes.

“I’m more caught up about not being at a job where my crew have been.”

“A good fireman is someone who doesn’t need to be told how to do what they’ve been asked to do, and when you move from fireman to junior officer it’s very difficult to let go of actually doing it all yourself.

“That is the art of what we do. There are times when you have to not do something. The right thing is more often than not the hardest thing to do.”

“There have been some really difficult times but it’s a shared adversity. You succeed or fail together.

“I’m nothing without my crew and I’ve been lucky to have had great crews.”

Pouring one of his last cups of tea at the Walton station he added: “I wish the best for the future to all my colleagues, retired and still employed in the fire service.”