In recent months, Sergeant Richard Walsh has had to do a pretty grim job.
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He and the Illawarra Police Rescue squad were tasked with sifting through the rubble of homes flattened in the South Coast bushfires.
Unfortunately, they discovered the worst, bodies under the debris.
The squad travelled to towns such as Eden, and with the Rural Fire Service members to complete building impact assessments.
"Body recoveries are not a pleasant thing to do but it is a part of the job and the hardest part is dealing with grieving families," he said.
But for Sergeant Walsh, the joy of his job comes when he saves someone.
"It is good to come in and rescue someone," he said.
"I like seeing different parts of NSW, and I've seen some things, such as floods, fires, protests, that cops don't usually get to see in general duties.
"I like the outdoor work too. It is a good mix between doing paperwork and being outside and I like keeping fit."
The supervisor of the squad never thought he would end up searching for a missing person nor doing vertical and water rescues.
It was a job he fell into by chance as he was happy being a Shellharbour City Council lifeguard during his younger years.
"I deadset fell into the rescue squad," he said.
"I never wanted to be a cop. I was quite happy being a lifeguard for many years.
"Then I went to university to complete a degree in science focusing on geographic information systems.
"I was a teacher's assistant working around Australia. It was a great life.
"But then funding started to dry up and I didn't have any work.
"I went to an open day for the police, where I was offered a scholarship and did a 14 week course.
"I thought, 'if I like it, I'll do it and if not I'll go back to being a lifeguard'. Turns out, I did like it.
"I got stationed in the Illawarra and went though general duties but I didn't even know there was a rescue squad.
"I applied for job in the squad in 2005 and here I am.
"I have been running around in rescue for 15 years now."
When the squad is not doing land searches and rescues for lost bushwalkers; assisting at a crime scene or supporting other agencies such as the State Emergency Service with flood rescues, then they can get called to some unusual jobs.
"Every day is different," he said.
"Some days we will get a cat up the tree, a parrot or magpie caught in fishing line, or dog over a cliff or in a ditch.
"Those types of jobs aren't technically in our charter because it is not a domestic animal, but those jobs can be good practice for us."
Sgt Walsh recalled one of his favourite jobs in recent times, rescuing a dog that had fallen over a rock ledge at Stanwell Park.
"The dog rescue in December was enjoyable because it was a great outcome and allowed us to use outside-the-square techniques and skills," he said.
"We used a combination of vertical and swift water rescues.
"The tide was rising making the job a problematic extraction so we had to go from the water not the land.
"It was good to get in the water because it was a hot day."
The team are also skilled in rescuing large animals such as horses and cows.
The squad of ten provide 24-hour coverage with 10-hour shifts, then 14 hours on-call. There are part-time members who do rotations from their normal general duties or transport command roles.
The team train at least once a month by going for an abseil to practise their vertical manoeuvering off Bass Point, or they will jump in the ocean to do swift water training.
"If we get downtime, then we try and enhance our skills, or if something hasn't gone right during a job then we work on what could be done better," Sgt Walsh said.
During water training, members are taught how to enter the water safely, navigate across a current and how to rescue people who are trapped in a car during a flood.
Over the course of his career, Sgt Walsh has seen the type of rescues change.
He said the number of road crash rescues had significantly decreased in frequency likely due to improvements in car safety and more driver education.
"We still see big hits where people are not paying attention or are speeding but that has declined. Which is a good thing," he said.
The members also now use drone technology and do bomb appraisals.
Sgt Walsh also assisted in developing a geographical mapping software over the past three years, which will be implemented in the Queensland Police Force.
One of the biggest land searches Sgt Walsh was for missing Canadian bushwalker Prabhdeep Srawn in the Snowy Mountains in 2013.
"It was one of my first big search and rescues," he said. "It was a massive, multi-national search that went over three months.
"Our role was to co-ordinate search areas which is done by trying to predict that missing person's behaviour.
"We ask, where would they go based on their mindset, their knowledge, the terrain, tracks and we use clues such as where they have searched on the internet.
"We think about what they have done to make themselves get lost.
"We were coping international pressure to find him but unfortunately he was never located.
"It was brilliant to be involved in a search of that scale. As the coroner ruled, there really wasn't anything we could have done better."
The Illawarra squad has about a 90 per cent success rate of finding missing people, who often get lost near the Mount Keira Ring Track or off Macquarie Pass.
He said his biggest bugbear was not finding people for their families.
Sgt Walsh said a new member of the squad had come from general duties where is was dealing with domestics when he was thanked profusely by a family after helping to find their missing 16-year-old daughter.
"That's what this job is all about. We have good outcomes where we are helping people," he said.
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