He even had to put on sunglasses when the kids from the Fun-Damentals holiday care group presented him and his fellow firefighters with cards thanking them for their efforts.

"Obviously the fires are very prominent here in the Illawarra, the smoke is still hanging around, everyone is aware and the kids wanted to say thank you," Cpt Reid said.

"You can see a number of mums and dads have come away from work or home to be with the kids while they are here.

"We are just feeling really humbled, really blessed and really lucky that people want to say thank you for something we just do for the sake of the community."

Thursday's special event at Lindsay Park Public School was organised by Fun-Damentals' owner Daniel Morris, as a way of thanking "our firefighting heroes".

"This is the least we can do," he said.

Mr Morris and his wife Kate learned first hand the important role volunteer firefighters play in the community.

The Morris family were forced to evacuate a Lake Conjola caravan park on New Year's Eve.

"We were forced to evacuate just a bit before lunchtime. It was quite scary," Mr Morris said.

"Trying to coordinate a couple of families to get down to the beach, not knowing where the fire was, all we could see was the smoke.

"Seeing the helicopter bombers coming over our heads, yeah it was very scary.

"Cars were driving past the lake onto the beach. We were probably there for five or six hours before people started coming back.

"Some people stayed there overnight on the beach. We were lucky we got back to the caravan park towards the end of the night but everyone was still on fire alert."

When the family returned home Mr Morris spoke to his friend Cpt Reid and asked what he could do to make things a little better for his fellow fire fighters.

"This barbecue and the involvement of the kids giving thank you cards to the fire fighters is just a small way we can thank them," Mr Morris said.

"I just want to say a massive thank you to all the guys and girls out there who are volunteering, giving up their time, this is a small little thank you from us, hopefully we can keep doing more for them, hopefully they get a break soon."

Read more: Illawarra artists to 'fight fire with music' at fundraising gig

Cpt Reid said it was brilliant to see how the whole Illawarra community had pulled together.

"We haven't got the fires yet. The model suggests we will get them at some point," he said.

"At what level, that is all going to be weather dependent but our neighbours to the west, through Wollondilly, through the Highlands, they've already experienced the fires.

"Our next district, Shoalhaven to the south, has also suffered.

"It is so humbling to see so many people pulling together helping in any way they can."

.