The dedication of Stephen Walls to the Country Fire Authority has been recognised, with the long-serving member announced as a recipient of the Australian Fire Services Medal.
The prestigious honour is awarded to those who have rendered distinguished service as a member of an Australian fire service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Campbells Creek resident said he was shocked to hear he’d received the award.
\u201cIt\u2019s a great honour to be recognised for something that I enjoy doing, and it\u2019s something you don\u2019t expect but it means a lot that somebody has taken the time to put my name up,\u201d he said.
\u201cThere are a lot of people who do great things in the fire services and the bar\u2019s pretty high.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr Walls said he initially joined CFA as a 17-year-old volunteer to run in the State Championships.
\u201cBill Rodda from Korumburra asked my dad to help mark out a running track.
\u201cI told Bill I\u2019d come down for a run and obviously joined the fire brigade to do that, then got involved with the operational side of things and really enjoyed the camaraderie and range of things to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Commencing his staff career with CFA five years later, Mr Walls has since become a highly qualified and highly experienced operational officer, specialising in command and control structures, and incident management.
Among his many achievements, Mr Walls developed the accreditation process for CFA Level 3 Incident Controllers, helped standardise training and accreditation for key Incident Management Team roles across Victorian fire agencies, and contributed significantly to the revision of Victoria\u2019s Command and Control Structure for Bushfire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere were obviously a lot of memorable moments in major fires as well, but I think when you have significant incidents, you see the system come together and people going to the extra mile,\u201d he said.
\u201cAs an incident controller, I have a whole lot of people around me, and the expertise that people bring \u2013 whether that\u2019s on the back of a truck or the end of a rake-hoe \u2013 it\u2019s quite awe inspiring and I\u2019m very proud to be part of that system.
\u201cI think the CFA is an organisation that\u2019s got a lot of wonderful people in it, and the memorable times have been when we\u2019ve had all sorts of things going wrong, but people keep fronting up.”
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stephen Walls is one of seven CFA members to receive AFSM recognition in this year\u2019s Queen\u2019s Birthday Honours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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