Being recognised with the distinguished honour of an Australian Fire Service Medal runs in the family for Oak Flats' Christopher Nolan.
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The Illawarra group captain with the Rural Fire Service is now the second member of his family to be awarded after his father-in-law was given one in 2003.
Mr Nolan's father-in-law passed away in the back of a fire truck and the family asked him to accept the medal on their behalf.
Mr Nolan was named in the Australia Day Honours on Wednesday and celebrated the accolade with family during a barbeque.
"It feels like a full circle receiving mine. It is a distinguished honour in the family," he said.
"My father-in-law introduced me to the service when I met his daughter and I joined up.
"I am completely shocked and overwhelmed to be awarded the medal."
Mr Nolan joined the Oak Flats brigade in 1986 and in the same year took on the role of equipment officer, which he held until 2003. He continued to take an active role in the brigade, fulfilling the roles of deputy captain, senior deputy captain, captain, brigade health and safety officer and permit officer.
In 2017 he was elected by his peers to the Rank of Group Captain, and in 2018 he was awarded life membership to the Oak Flats Brigade.
He continues to carry out operational frontline activities including being a strike team leader across NSW for various emergencies and he assist the incident management team.
"But best of all is the thanks I have gotten from members of the community, especially during the 2019/20 summer bushfires," Mr Nolan said. "People would come up and pat us on the back.
"I was near Dubbo one year fighting fires and a young kid came up to me and gave me a Christmas card that said 'thank you for saving my town'.
"Those are the types of moments I will remember forever. The RFS is out there to help the community and that is what I love the most."
Mr Nolan said the 2019/20 summer bushfires had been tough mentally and physically on all firefighters and many were still trying to comprehend what they had seen and lost but they had the "unbelievable" support of the RFS mental health teams.
He said thankfully it had been a quiet summer this year which had given members time to regroup but that had been made more difficult with not being able to see each other in person due to COVID.
"We went from one extreme to fighting fires, the likes of which I had never seen in 35 years, to COVID where we weren't able to shake hands," he said.
Although brigade members had adapted, like everyone, to meeting virtually.
Mr Nolan's other passion in the RFS is training young cadets to become primary members of brigades. More than 10 years ago he started the Illawarra Cadet Brigade, which is now run out the Albion Park Rail base for teens aged 12 to 18.
Once they are 16 or 18 and have completed their training they can join a brigade. There are currently about 25 cadets.
"I love to see when they come in nice and shy and they build up their team work as a group," Mr Nolan said.
"I enjoy passing on my years of experience with the other 10 mentors who assist me.
"They also compete in the state and Australian cadet championships."
Mr Nolan thanked his family for supporting him over the past 35 years because they had sacrificed time with him so he could serve his community.
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