Wick firefighter ‘Titchie’ Hughes retires after 31 years
Wick Community Fire Station has lost one of its longest serving firefighters with the retirement of Richard (Titchie) Hughes.
Richard, whose full-time job is an electrical engineering lecturer with the UHI, North, West and Hebrides College, Thurso campus, joined the Highlands and Islands Fire Brigade on October 7, 1993.
Following amalgamations and changes, Richard has now retired, after 31 and a half years, from the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service. He retired at the end of March, but donned his uniform, for one last time, when he returned to Wick Community Fire Station to be presented with a miniature model of a firefighter’s helmet by watch commander Hugo Ross.
Dornoch-based station commander, David Bell, presented him with a retirement certificate and a brass tally showing his name, service number and years of service.
By coincidence, Richard's first and last call-outs were within a few hundred yards of each other and neither involved a fire. His first "shout" was to Kennedy Terrace to assist police remove a would-be fireraiser from a house, while his final call was around the corner at Harrow Hill where a house was flooding.
