I had a day off and was going to the pool when I felt the earthquake.

I thought there had been a truck accident but then my pager went off.

I started at Beaumont Street but paramedics were urgently needed at the Workers Club.

There were only eight in Newcastle.

The building looked like a pack of collapsed cards. It was a maze of concrete, dust, steel rods and pokie machines.

Martin was in first and made a mental map of sounds but we had to search that dark hell for survivors. There were voices in a three metre deep narrow cavity.

I was lowered down with a fire hose because we had no ropes.

We got the people out, including Norm Duffy and his wife, while the dust fell and reo rods twanged.

It was so dusty that it was hard to tell people from rubble.

I am retired now but spent my life as a paramedic. I became mates with Norm Duffy. He was a great guy and really kept all the ladies spirits up who were trapped in the Club with him.

I think that the revitalisation of the city could have moved faster but was slowed down by infighting.

The spirit of this city never died.

Alan Playford

Then 39 year old Paramedic and Fireman, Hamilton