Fire that haunts me still

Veteran firefighter hangs up his helmet

FRANK McGrath has seen hundreds of fires in his 40 years with the Tasmania Fire Service, but even on the day of his retirement, one blaze still haunts him.

Mr McGrath, 65, hung up his helmet for the final time last night after four decades with the TFS.

During those years, Tasmania’s oldest career firefighter has fought hundreds of bushfires and house fires, but it is the 2007 Myer blaze that sticks in his memory.

“We came up Liverpool St and we saw the smoke haze and I thought ‘This is going to be a bad day’,” he said.

“We went as a crew to the first floor and identified the fire was in the floor space and ... while we were there it broke through the floor and progressed rapidly.”

Mr McGrath became trapped with Steve Jones — with their distress calls finally answered by fellow firefighter Scott Vinen, who broke procedures by going to their rescue alone.

“We were led out of the fire and we took another crew in 10 minutes later but we had to leave,” he said.

“The fire was untenable, we couldn’t penetrate far enough.”

Mr McGrath said crews from across Hobart and be- yond fought the blaze all night from the top of the building and inside the Cat and Fiddle Arcade.

“The old fireys used to say that if Myer went up the whole block would go,” Mr McGrath said. “The building was destroyed but we all stopped it spreading which was a good feat.”

Mr McGrath said he had fought about 10 major bushfires, including the 1998 Mt NelsonN bushfires and blazes at Molesworth, Flagstaff Gully, Elderslie and in Victoria.

He also secured the national long service medal after 35 years with the TFS, but now it is his time to sign off.

“I’ve loved this job, the camaraderie and how we’ve got each other’s back,” Mr McGrath said.