THE flag flying at half mast fluttered in the autumn breeze outside Christchurch fire station on Tuesday while firefighters past and present remembered two of their colleagues who perished in the Great Storm 20 years earlier.

To the falling leaves which swirled around the town's Jumpers cemetery were added floral tributes laid at the linked graves of comrades David Gregory and Graham White.

The two volunteer fire fighters, both in their 40s and each with more than 20 years service, died when a tree crashed on to their fire engine in the earlier hours of October 16 1987.

It is a date etched on their memorial and on the faces of former firefighters who were with them on that fateful night and who, two decades to the day later, had gathered at the graveside to remember.

Among them were David Bryant, recently retired as chief of the retained fire fighters at Christchurch, John Trowbridge and Katherine Crouch, who were trapped in the wreckage of the fire engine crushed under the weight of a tree felled by the fiercest storm to hit Southern England in more than two centuries.

They were rescued by a second crew of volunteer Christchurch fire fighters including present retained fire fighter Paul Jarvis and Dave Palmer, then a new recruit to the brigade and answering his first shout' to help persons trapped in a vehicle.

He recalled: "I have never felt so helpless in all my life. It is one thing to practise, but when it is people you know."

It is a tragedy Mr Palmer can't forget, occurring as it did on his own birthday, and each year on the anniversary he makes a poignant pilgrimage to the cemetery.

This year he was joined by more than a dozen serving firefighters and fellow veterans of the Great Storm for a simple ceremony to mark the 20th anniversary.

On the stroke of midday the parade snapped to attention while current station manager Peter Kerr and Dorset Fire Authority chairman Cllr David Fox - who as mayor of Christchurch in 1987 had led the tributes at their funeral service in the Priory - laid wreaths at the graves of the former Sub-officer Gregory and fireman White.