"I'LL never forget a man called Michael. He was one of the people I helped rescue from the Kegworth air crash.

He had been buried for hours under the debris of the plane before we finally found out about him and managed to pull him out.

Hours had passed before this poor guy was rescued. It must have felt like a lifetime to him.

I heard him shouting for help and that's how I knew that there was someone else still alive within the wreckage.

His tiny voice filtered through the mass of stuff which had been thrown on top of him.

We worked like dogs to release him and finally he came out. He was shocked and injured, but he was all right.

He went straight to hospital.

Some firefighters were never the same after the Kegworth air crash. They changed after that night. It was pretty awful.

It was a terrible incident and I know people were deeply affected by what they saw. I was shocked, too, and I still get upset now.

The night of Kegworth started like any other shift on duty as a retained firefighter.

We got a call to say that a plane was in difficulty and we were needed at East Midlands Airport. It was not unusual to be called out to the airport. I've been up there many times when planes have been in difficulty.

Being based at Melbourne makes us the closest fire station to the airport and that's why our appliance is regularly in attendance. But that night, 20 years ago, was like nothing I'd seen before.

We arrived at the airport a few minutes before the plane actually crashed. That's how fast we responded to the incident.

I stood and watched the lights of the aircraft coming in as the plane drew closer to East Midlands Airport.

We knew that the plane was making an emergency landing at EMA because it had encountered engine problems.

As I watched the plane, it didn't really occur to me that it was actually going to crash.

Then the lights that I'd been watching so intently disappeared from sight.

Someone shouted, 'It's down. It's gone down' and that's when we realised that it had actually hit the ground. It had crashed.

Immediately, the fire crew based at EMA and ourselves, a six-man crew from Melbourne, made our way to the crash.

We were first on the scene. We travelled along the A453 and parked on the bridge. The airport crew took slightly longer to arrive.

We parked up and raced down the embankment.

The plane looked tiny as it sat crumpled on the floor. There were a couple of passengers already out of the plane, stumbling around, looking shocked and disorientated. For a moment or two, I don't think they realised quite what had happened.

I saw another man sitting on the floor and there was a woman in a tree. Goodness knows quite how she got up there. She must have clambered out of the plane, which had come down within the shrubs and stuff, and climbed up. I'll never forget seeing her up there. It was so very strange.

One of the first people we managed to get out of the wreckage was a lady called Pam. I asked her for her name to try to give her some comfort and reassurance.

She was injured but she was all right. Myself and another one of my crew carried her out of the plane. She put her arms round our necks as we took her to safety.

Initially, we weren't allowed to get inside the plane until it had been decided that the fuel supply had been successfully cut off.

Foam was sprayed all over the place to stop a fire breaking out. We were totally covered in it.

After a while, we were joined by several more pumps from other stations. Police and ambulance crews had also started to arrive.

Some motorists came to help and we asked them to comfort the first few passengers we had managed to get off.

It was strangely quiet during the whole rescue operation. There was a funny smell around, too.

It was a very difficult night. We worked for hours trying to help the people who had been travelling on that plane.

When we weren't dragging people off, fire crews were using cutting equipment to move seats out of the way.

We worked together, rescuing people and then standing back while teams moved debris from the scene.

The situation was calm and organised. I felt in control and my team worked hard. In fact, looking back, my crew were a credit to the service.

It was hard when a passenger came off who hadn't survived. They were taken up the embankment to the M1, where a makeshift morgue had been created.

It was equally stressful to witness the terrible injuries that some had suffered. The sights I saw have never left me.

Hours passed and still the rescue operation went on.

After the crash, I received a letter from Margaret Thatcher, thanking me for the work I did that night.

I also went to Nottingham for a special event, attended by Prince Charles, to pay tribute to the teams of emergency services who had played such a vital part in the Kegworth air crash.

The crew at Melbourne fire station were tremendous. I was proud to be part of such a superb team of firefighters.

From the day I started as a retained firefighter at Melbourne 39 years ago, I found a way of coping with the things I saw. I'd come home after a shift and talk to my wife, Chris.

She'd be there waiting for me, ready to listen to whatever I wanted to talk about.

We'd sit down and I'd tell her what I'd been doing and how I felt. Sharing the highs and lows of the job with my wife, I learned, was the best form of counselling I could ever receive. As a firefighter, I have seen some horrific sights but, thanks to my family, I have found a way to cope with my experiences.

The following day, after the air crash, we went to Derbyshire Royal Infirmary to visit some of the survivors who we had helped.

That was hugely rewarding. It was fantastic to see so many people who had walked off the plane alive.

For me, it helped to bring a sense of closure to the event. I felt better after seeing some of the passengers.

But for a long time after the incident, I think we all felt the shock and the strain of what we'd witnessed that night.

It was extremely difficult because so many people lost their lives in the crash.

For many of us, the pain still remains."