Tamworth Fire Brigade toasted Gerry Cannon with tea and cake to celebrate his 50 years of dedication to protecting the Tamworth community – even though in the "old days" he and his fire fighting buddies would have still been finishing off a beer keg in the late afternoon.

Capt Cannon is just one firefighter of about four in NSW to serve for more than half a century and certainly the first in Tamworth.

He received calls from high-ranking fire bosses from all over NSW but it was not prestige that has kept Capt Cannon in the extinguishing game.

The now 69-year-old former Buttercup bakery supervisor joined the brigade as a 19-year-old on January 15, 1957, and has lived and breathed fire fighting ever since.

"If there's been a fire in Tamworth I've been there – pretty well," Capt Cannon said.

He was there to defend life and property at some of

Tamworth's most memorable fires including the Elgas gas leak and an explosion at Fielders Starches.

"The gas fire was probably the most frightening," Capt Canon said.

"There was a flexible line [that] drivers hooked up to the trucks to fill up from four tanks but it had a hole in it and started leaking liquid LPG gas.

"About 4.30am it caught on fire but the worst part of it was the flame was going straight onto it.

"I sent my deputy in to turn off the taps," he said smiling.

A fire at the Fielders Starch building, now Penfords Australia in Marius St, left Capt Cannon with an injury to remind him of occupational hazards.

After a starch dryer exploded and began to burn the building Capt Cannon climbed to the roof to stop the fire.

But a slip sent him falling six metres onto a floor below, crushing two vertebrae.

He said the injury would be a permanent reminder of his

service.

But not all call-outs have been so serious.

Capt Cannon said he was regularly called to cliched calls to bring cats down out of trees but soon gave up.

"We used to get them down but now I just tell people they'll come down when they are hungry enough – you've never seen a cat skeleton up a tree," he said.

Capt Cannon said animal rights activists would hurl abuse at him should they find out a method he and some of his colleagues tried to use to rescue another cat.

"There was a cat down a storm drain so we put the hose down the other end and turned the water on to make it come out," he said.

"The cat came out – dead – we'd drowned it."

The brigade has come a long way in his time since he was offered a part-time position on the brigade for 15 shillings per call out – night or day, winter or summer.

When he signed up the fire station was located at the site of the now Tamworth Police Station and firemen rode to fires on a 1929 Denise engine that did not carry water – instead relying on water mains on site for supply.

Firefighters wore brass hats more suited to the gladiator arena than a fire scene and full woollen suits.

They relied on bells installed inside their homes or a town siren to alert them they were needed to fight a blaze.

But it has not been all protocol – Capt Cannon has never missed a NSW Fire Brigades Firefighting Championship, held biannually.

This year he will be busy helping to organise the next championship event in Tamworth in 2008 and that's where Capt Cannon believes he will bow out of the job that has consumed him for more than 50 years.

"If I can make it till then I might think about finishing up," he said.