"We've seen stuff that you wouldn't want to see again ... bodies coming out complete, not complete, burnt."
Senior Station Officer Hill was one of 40 southern firefighters on the road north within two hours of Tuesday's earthquake in Christchurch.
Those who went north included about 18 firefighters from Dunedin, in two fire appliances, and the Dunedin-based emergency command unit, as well as crews from Ravensbourne, Alexandra and Oamaru.
All but four of the southern firefighters returned south on Friday and Saturday, but more are likely to return to Christchurch next week and over the coming weeks and months, as Christchurch firefighters need to be rested.
The four who remain are working in the Dunedin command unit, which is located at the CTV site where it is believed up to 130 people were inside when it collapsed almost completely in the quake and caught fire.
Back in Dunedin yesterday, Mr Hill said he spent time working at that site before being transferred to the central fire station in Kilmore St to help the operations manager at the central command unit.
Working at the CTV site was challenging, he said.
"Let's just say we didn't bring anybody out alive in the time we spent there."
Fire Service command units were placed at sites where it was believed there were people in the rubble.
They effectively ran the sites, co-ordinating requests from all workers at each site and feeding and sharing information between the various command centres.
The work was difficult and confronting, Mr Hill said.
Rescue personnel who had been exposed to comparatively limited amounts of human carnage during their careers were finding the work hard to deal with, but there were people at the sites - contractors and volunteers - who had never had to deal with bodies before, he said.
They sometimes found it overwhelming, he said, which was why counsellors were available at all sites.
As much as rescuers held out hope there were pockets with people inside at these sites, they knew it was a grim situation.
The earthquake is the second time the command units, introduced by the Government in preparation for the Rugby World Cup, have been used in a real emergency.
The first was after the September earthquake in Christchurch.
