Sorensen has been to fires that destroyed buildings and held a dead baby in his arms.
But he said the main thing he remembers about his work has been the comradeship.
"The greatest thing I have experienced is the comradeship of the firefighters," he said. "It's the same just about wherever you are in the country. It's the culture. It's the job. We support each other."
After a bad incident, firefighters talk to each other and have a few beers. They can get counselling too, if they want.
At a New Plymouth fire that was hot enough to melt plastic helmets, a six-month-old baby was killed.
"We cope by putting it in a part of our brain and occasionally bringing it out, and we deal with it," he said.
He believes work should be a happy place, and he took on the jester role, saying funny things and playing tricks. Given an engraved beer mug at his farewell morning tea, he quipped: "There's nothing in it".
Station officer Jes Sorensen holds the brass helmet he started with in Urenui in 1960, and a modern one. Photo / Bevan Conley
He enjoyed the brigade's good relationships with police, ambulance and newspapers - and the excitement of the job.
"You are getting on the truck. You don't know where you're going to but when you get there you do what you have to do."
He started at the Whanganui station in 1986 and remembers the 1994 Ridgway St fire that destroyed several buildings, the Whanganui grandstand fire and a day when both the Whanganui East railway sheds and the Spriggens Park stadium burned - extra staff were called for each.
He was in the first truck to respond when eight shops at 136 Victoria Ave burned down.
"That was probably my worst fire - the first time we lost a building. There were so many openings in the building that it spread horizontally."
He has kept fit by doing "strange exercises" at a gym. He's seen a lot of changes and restructures in the service, and one time when "the whole system fell over".
"In the mid-1990s every professional firefighter got a letter to say we were sacked, and we had to re-apply. We just came in and carried on."
He's worked in the old Whanganui Fire Station in Guyton St, started as a volunteer in Urenui in 1960, became full-time in 1966 and worked after that in New Plymouth, Wellington, the North Shore and central Auckland, with just over a year in Denmark in the early 1970s, to experience its all-embracing emergency service.
He attained station officer status in 1977, and has been senior station officer at times. He's won two gold stars for 25 years of service, and been to the Whanganui brigade's 125th and 150th anniversaries.
Now that he's retired he plans to write his memoir and work on his house - and make visits back to the Whanganui station.
"There will be times when I come in here to annoy them," he said.
