 On the 21st of November 2019, the sweltering day of statewide total firebands, and Victoria's first code red in almost a decade. On that faithful day, three dry lightning strikes in the mountains of East Gippsland set in motion will become one of Victoria's worst fire seasons. My role wasn't out on the fire ground, I was basically working the admin side from Brigade. Probably the main thing was keeping families up to date with where their partners were. That was the hardest part because people start to worry because there were a lot of ruins and that was probably the most important thing, the most important job I had. To receive this medal tonight is really important to me. It's nice to be appreciated and recognised for the efforts we've done during the fires and for the time we've spent away from our families, in my case my three young children. For all the things our country throws at us, flight and fire, she pays us back three times. But the reason our country pays us back three times is that going right in this room. You.