George Sansom’s sun room does not seem like a place where life-changing decisions are made. But that’s what happened here one morning a month ago. George and his wife Sue were watching birds feeding in the garden of their house on London Road, Carlisle.

“I said ‘I could get used to this’,” recalls George. “I said ‘I’m going to go in today and say I’m going to retire.’”

Today that decision reaches its conclusion. Today George retires from Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service. It has been his employer for 29 years.

George is incident commander and manager at Carlisle east and west fire stations. He has worked at, and managed, many stations in north and west Cumbria. The job has given him huge rewards. Adrenalin. Camaraderie. The satisfaction of helping people: in many cases helping to save lives.

But there’s a downside too. And maybe that’s why the thought of more time watching the birds in his garden seems very appealing.

George, a warm and friendly chap, remembers attending a road crash and seeing someone he knew fatally injured. He says: “RTCs [road traffic collisions] are the ones that stay with you, especially whenever there’s a child or a young person. That’s the real heart-tugger. It’s horrendous.

“You often go back to the station and speak to colleagues to get it out in the open. The fire service run a critical incident debriefing team. If it’s thought necessary, you go through the incident with them and talk about how it made you feel.

“You do get flashbacks. Some people get post-traumatic stress disorder. One guy had to leave the service because of it. He detested going to RTCs. He imagined his son in that position. He was driving to work one day and he turned round and never went back.”

George says people tend to think new starters suffer the most. He thinks the job takes a bigger toll on those who have spent years seeing the aftermath of crashes and fires.

“If you can imagine the drip, drip effect, eventually the cup gets full. That last few drops can tip you over the edge.”

He’s getting out before that happens to him. His 55th birthday was in May. Firefighters can retire at 55, or keep working for as long as they pass the medical. George had planned to continue, until that morning in the sun room when it suddenly made sense to walk away.

The fire service is about to restructure, which is one reason this seemed a suitable time to leave. The job has already changed in other ways.

The number of road crashes has increased as the number of fires has fallen. This is largely thanks to the service’s increased emphasis on fire prevention.

Still, George has tackled many blazes in his time. He recalls Botchergate Co-op, Rathbones Bakery, Nestlé at Dalston.

“I’ve had a few near misses,” he says. “Very early on I remember a roof coming in on top of us. That was in Jane Street, Caldewgate, where Sainsbury’s is now. It was a terraced house, a derelict property.

“There’d been reports of homeless people sleeping there. Me and another firefighter, Roland Graham, went up to the first floor. I just heard this crashing and the ceiling came through.

“A big sandstone ridge tile, about a metre long, clipped my shoulder and split my fire helmet. It knocked me to the ground. Roland pulled me out. Thankfully there was no one in there. Afterwards you think ‘How lucky was I there?’”

Another change: for today’s fire service, water is increasingly the enemy. During Carlisle’s 2005 floods George waded in, knocking on doors along Warwick Road in search of people needing rescue.

Last December he spent three days as incident commander in the same area, working with emergency services from Cumbria and elsewhere.

“I worked alongside a guy from West Midlands Fire Service. We were directing people where to go. It was chaotic and hectic. We were trying to make it as efficient as possible.”

What’s his memory of those long days? “Just the heartache. You can see people distraught, knowing their properties have been devastated again. Just the distress on people’s faces. Also the resilience of Carlisle folk. A lot of them were thanking us for helping them out. And people worried about relatives. ‘I haven’t been in touch with my mother since the floods.’”

The desire to ease such worries is one reason why George went into the fire service. There was also a childhood fascination with those loud machines with flashing lights that zoomed past his home in Wallsend, Tyne and Wear.

“About 1972 there was a big bakery in the north east took fire. There must have been 14 or 15 fire engines. I stood in amazement.”

George was a plumbing and heating engineer when he and Sue moved to Alston in 1981. Five years later George became a retained (part-time) firefighter there, for 11 months. After training as a full-time firefighter he was posted to Carlisle.

“At Alston I had six incidents in 11 months. In Carlisle my first tour of duty – two days and two nights – we had nine incidents. The last one was a fatal property fire... welcome to the real world. You can’t really prepare for it until you experience it.”

Not every job was deadly serious. There have been cats up trees, dogs down rabbit holes, even a snake up a chimney.

This is a job of extremes. Tragedy and exhilaration. Much of the pleasure comes in the camaraderie. George remembers a fire at The Ark reptile shop on Wigton Road, Carlisle. “Two went in. They took the hose reel. One of the guys who was outside picked up the reel, wiggled it and shouted ‘Snake!’

“The crew got the last laugh. They walked out with a huge iguana, it must have been three or four feet long. They handed it to the one who’d wiggled the reel.”

He smiles. “There’s some characters. Really nice folk.”

George took his first steps in management in 1995 and stopped working on fire engines about six years ago. He rues the distance which inevitably opens between managers and their staff. Sometimes he has missed tackling incidents rather than directing them.

“I have to make the risk assessment: are we going to commit a life into saving this building? Is it the right decision? If there’s a saveable life in the building, you’re going to commit every time. Are the guys going to get out safely?”

As a manager George has often been on call all night. He has been out to road accidents up to six times a night. “If you’re involved in a nasty incident as a manager, you just drive home then you lie in bed.”

It all has an effect. Drip, drip. He says Sue, a retired teacher, has been wonderfully supportive. He is looking forward to spending more time with her, their three children and five grandchildren. There will also be time for hobbies including electronics – George has built a flight simulator in the garage – and woodworking.

Two weeks ago there was a presentation from fire service area manager John McVay. George found it very emotional. Today he is dropping off his fire service car and handing back his kit.

“It will be quite emotional I think when I finally hand my keys in. I count myself very fortunate to be retiring on a good pension at 55. I’ve had a fantastic career. The biggest achievement is being able to serve the community.

“I’m sad to be leaving. It’s been a big part of my life for the last 29 years. Coming from a position of authority and responsibility to just being the general man on the street is a strange feeling. But it’s one that I’m looking forward to.”