Former fireman Philip Nicks said he was "lucky to be alive" to celebrate his golden wedding anniversary tomorrow.

The worst incident in his many years as a retained firefighter happened when friend and colleague John Wixey died while dealing with an acetylene cylinder.

The fatal accident, in March 1987 at Charlbury quarry, led to manufacturers reviewing safety measures for dealing with potentially explosive gas cylinders.

Mr Nicks, who was a member of the Chipping Norton fire crew, said: "I was the one closest to him when the thing went up. I was in the explosion as it blew the roof off.

"I know they pulled me out and I was taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital. It was a very sad day and I am lucky to be alive."

Mr Wixey, 46, the officer in charge of the incident, died from his injuries.

Mr Nicks, now 74, remained a fireman in the Oxfordshire retained service until he was 55.

His wife Joan remembers the many times when she was about to serve dinner and his emergency beeper would go off.

The couple, of Hailey Road, Chipping Norton, mark 50 years of married life together tomorrow. They have a daughter Jennie, son Steven, and four grandchildren.

They met at a dance in the former Norton Hall in Chipping Norton. Mr Nicks had cycled from his home village of Heythrop and she had caught the bus from her home in Adlestrop.

Mrs Nicks, 79, said: "That was about the only way you met those days, at dances."

They married at Adlestrop's parish church and have lived in Chipping Norton ever since.

Mr Nicks worked for 31 years as a moulder at the town's former Hub Ironworks.

When it closed, he was the first person employed as a machine operator for Owen Mumford, in Woodstock, now one of the largest employers in west Oxfordshire.

The couple, both keen gardeners, shared their celebration with daughter Jennie - marking her silver wedding anniversary - with a meal for more than 70 relatives and friends at the town's Crown and Cushion Hotel last weekend.