AN OFF-DUTY firefighter has spoken of the emotional moment he brought a huge search for a missing, vulnerable grandfather to an end.

Mark Hemingway, 45, of Holmfirth, found 77-year-old Gordon Bentley wandering the street miles away from his home in Roberttown, Liversedge.

Mr Bentley has dementia and disappeared from a Gomersal care home on Wednesday evening, leading to a massive search and appeal on social media.

Many turned out to help find him as West Yorkshire Police launched a search across the county.

Mr Hemingway, who is a retained firefighter at Holmfirth Fire Station and a watch commander at Stanningley, near Leeds, was alerted to the appeal through his daughter Amy, who knows Mr Bentley’s grandson.

He and his colleagues went out in a fire engine overnight to join the search and he then went out on his own after coming off shift on Thursday morning.

As he headed towards Bradford, he was amazed to find Mr Bentley wandering down the busy Bradford Road, close to Thornbury Barracks, Pudsey.

Mr Hemingway said: “It was a bit of a surreal moment. There was a mixture of elation and nervousness about speaking to him.”

Those working for West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service are trained to become dementia champions and Mr Hemingway said that training naturally kicked in when he spotted Mr Bentley.

He said: “I wound the window down and shouted his name. He came over to the car and I said ‘you’re lost’ and he said ‘yes, I’m lost’. He was so calm and upbeat and a genuinely nice man.”

Still wearing his uniform, Mr Hemingway, who has worked as a firefighter for 20 years, gained Mr Bentley’s trust and got in touch with his family to let him know he had been found safe and well.

He then drove him to a nearby car park, where police officers and an ambulance soon arrived.

Mr Hemingway said: “I had an outpouring of emotion. I felt so relieved he had been found.

“It wasn’t about me - it was about the number of people that responded. People left their families and went walking the streets looking for him."

“I’m just glad I was in the right place at the right time,” he added. “This world, or West Yorkshire, is not a bad place.

“It’s not all doom and gloom. There are some really nice people out there. It was so humbling to be a part of that. "I would do it again tomorrow - it’s just something that when you’re working for the organisation I do, you do. There was a sense of whether you are on duty or not, that’s what we are. That’s what we are trained to do.”