BBC weatherman Michael Fish famously told viewers on the evening of October 15, 1987, that there would not be a hurricane.

Technically he was right, but the Great Storm as it has since become known, still left an indelible mark on lives and landscapes across southern England.

As the violent storm ripped a swathe of death and destruction from Cornwall to Kent, nowhere felt the ferocity of the 125-mile winds more than the sleeping retirement community of Highcliffe.

Nearly 100 frail and elderly folk were rudely roused from their slumbers when the roof was ripped from their Greystones sheltered housing complex in the early hours of Friday, October 16.

But there was worse to come just a few yards down the road when a giant tree was brought crashing down on the cab of a fire engine, killing two of the volunteer crew inside and injuring four others.

The devastation, debris and fallen trees brought the area to a standstill the following morning as council workmen and utility company engineers battled to clear roads and restore power and telephone lines.

And Christchurch came to a standstill again 10 days later when townsfolk stood in tribute as the funeral cortege for sub-officer David Gregory and fireman Graham White passed through the High Street to the Priory.

The two men, both in their 40s and each with more than 20 years service, were buried with full Fire Brigade honours, their coffins draped in the Union Flag and borne by a fire appliance.

Colleagues cut from the wreckage of the same fire engine acted as pallbearers and fire service chiefs from almost every brigade in the country packed the church to pay their respects to the two long-serving retained firefighters who lost their lives in the service of their community.

David Bryant, now recently retired as chief of the retained firefighters at Christchurch fire station, was among the crew of the ill-fated engine.

He recalled how the Bedford appliance was returning from an emergency call to Beacon Drive where a block of flats had lost part of its roof in the storm.

"It still comes back to haunt me," said Mr Bryant, who features in a major television documentary to be screened on Tuesday night to mark the anniversary of the Great Storm.

The 90-minute documentary, Britain's Biggest Storm, which goes out on ITV at 9pm, also features a dramatic reconstruction of the Highcliffe tragedy filmed at the former Sopley Camp with the aid of fire training firm Wessex Fire and Rescue Service using HCB Angus Bedford TK fire engines owned by local fire engine enthusiasts.

"It was going to happen anyway whenever there is an anniversary like this so it is better they get the true story," said Mr Bryant, who still keeps in touch with his former colleagues and the families of those who died.

Wessex Fire and Rescue Service chief Keith Allgood said: "My concern is that the film documentary is done tastefully and with respect for those who died."

Cllr David Fox, who was Mayor of Christchurch at that time and chairman of the Dorset county council public protection committee responsible for the fire service, also has vivid memories of the Great Storm and its aftermath.

At 6am that morning he was on local radio launching a Mayoral appeal fund which eventually raised some £85,000 for the families of the two firemen.

He also gave the address at their funeral service, a duty he said was "one of the most difficult things I have had to do either as Mayor or as chairman of the Fire Service Committee".

Two former Mayors of Christchurch - Irene Stevenson, evacuated from her Greystone flat, and Richard Bruce, who woke to find a huge cypress tree had crashed through the roof of his Mudeford home - were among those who had close calls during the storm, which claimed more than a dozen lives and caused millions of pounds' worth of damage around the country from falling trees and masonry and flying debris as the winds ravaged towns and countryside.

Schoolchildren on a trip to Swanage were evacuated as the storm threatened to overturn their holiday camp caravans and at Mudeford boats torn from their moorings were cast adrift as far as the golf course bordering Stanpit Marsh.

Drivers battling to work in the half light early the following morning also fell foul of fallen trees blocking roads and across Dorset and the New Forest homes and businesses struggled to cope without power for several days afterwards, with outlying areas at Wimborne, Bransgore and Milford-on-Sea hardest hit.

"It was one of those things that happen from time to time. There was no alternative but to cope with it," said Cllr Fox.

"I certainly hope lessons were learned and as far as the fire service is concerned I would say we are far better equipped than we were 20 years ago."