SA Country Fire Service's Andy Wood, American River, and Lee Watson, Happy Valley, are among those recognised on the Australia Day Honours List, having both received an Australian Fire Service Medal for outstanding contributions across a combined total of nearly 65 years of service.
Mr Wood joined the Kingscote CFS in 2006 as a brigade firefighter, transferring to Wisanger in 2009, and in 2010 was elected to the position of brigade Lieutenant.
In 2012, he took on the role as Brigade Captain until 2015 and in 2016 he transferred to American River Brigade where he was elected as Captain, a role he continues in today.
Mr Wood remains an operational firefighter, and was heavily involved in fighting the devastating Kangaroo Island fires last summer, but his award also recognises his leadership roles with the state and national volunteer firefighting associations.
He has held the role of CFS Volunteers Association president since 2016, as well as Council of Australian Volunteer Fire Associations president since 2018. The latter is the peak representative body of all volunteer fire associations, representing approximately 250,000 firefighters.
"In this role he has again shown leadership representing and advocating at a national level with governments and other key stakeholders for volunteer rights and support," Mr Wood's Honours List entry reads.
"Mr Wood's dedication and commitment to the SA CFS, to volunteer personnel locally and nationally, and to the safety of the wider community, is to be commended."
The pride you find in being able to serve their fellow Australian citizen is very rewarding.
- LEE WATSON
Happy Valley's Lee Watson is just two weeks shy of tallying up 40 years of service to the CFS, having first joined the Basket Range CFS at just 17 years of age.
"My Dad was an apple and cherry grower in the Hills, and involved in the CFS - I would often see him go off on the local fire truck, and disappear for a while, which I thought would be a good thing to be doing. So when I was at an age where I could join, I did," Mr Watson said.
Mr Watson has attended more than 1000 operational responses while serving in a number of roles at the Basket Range and Norton Summit-Ashton CFS Brigades and at the East Torrens CFS Group.
In addition to his many years of volunteer operational service, he has also completed more than 20 years of service as a CFS staff member, and has been instrumental in establishing and maintaining ongoing compliance of the CFS as a Registered Training Organisation for more than 15 years, enabling thousands of SACFS volunteers and staff to be awarded nationally-accredited competency and qualifications.
Mr Watson is currently the CFS operational infrastructure and logistics director, a position he has found to be hugely rewarding.
"Last summer, I was at Adelaide Airport running logistics and managing the deployments and returns of SA CFS crews interstate, and to have members of the general public who had no association to the CFS, come up and offer a collective thanks to the organisation as to what our guys were doing, was really special," he said.
Yes, it's an individual award, but something like this can't be achieved unless you're supported by a good body of people around you, so I'm very lucky in that regard.
- LEE WATSON
Giving directives during 2014's Bangor fire in the Mid North stands out as a particularly challenging moment in Mr Watson's career.
"I was Deputy Incident Controller at the time, and the fire and weather we were being confronted with was going to make things extremely difficult," he said.
"You'd never ask anyone to do anything you wouldn't be prepared to do yourself, but we were aware that these crews were being put into a borderline dangerous situation. Trying to offer a degree of leadership and calmness knowing full well the conditions they were about to face, was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do."
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While Mr Watson said he was reaching the more mature end of his career, he intends to remain involved for a number of years yet, and urged others to get involved with the organisation.
"(Being a part of the CFS) can have many rewards in terms of personal development, establishing lifelong friends, and getting pride from being able to put something back into local communities," he said.
"The pride you find in being able to serve their fellow Australian citizen is very rewarding."
Mr Watson said he felt honoured to be a recipient of an AFSM, but said his achievements and work had been largely a team effort.
"Yes, it's an individual award, but something like this can't be achieved unless you're supported by a good body of people around you, so I'm very lucky in that regard," Mr Watson said.
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