Firefighter shelves his own retirement party to help save 28 calves that got into trouble on his final shift

On-call crew commander John Holmes retired from Newcastle fire station on Monday night (July 31) but his last shift suddenly turned into a memorable one.

After 42 years of serving the local community, Monday was John’s last drill night at Newcastle and his colleagues and officers planned to gather together at the station to mark his retirement.

Despite hoping for a relatively quiet night, the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS) were tasked to reports of 28 calves that were trapped in a slurry tank just outside Cullyhanna in County Armagh.

As Newcastle is one of the fire service's animal rescue stations, they were tasked to the incident along with a number of officers who were due to attend John’s retirement, meaning the farewell event was disrupted.

However, despite not being expected to attend the call, John got stuck in one last time and played a central hands-on role in the rescue mission.

Thankfully there was a happy ending as firefighters wearing breathing apparatus, used specialist slings and large animal rescue equipment to rescue the calves.

The NIFRS have confirmed that John's retirement party will now take place on Monday (August 7) - here's hoping there are no interruptions this time around.