Orange volunteer firefighter Geoff Olde recognised with National Emergency Medal

This week, his bravery and dedication were recognised with the prestigious National Emergency Medal.

While more than 700 locals volunteered during the catastrophe, none devoted more time to the cause than Olde.

When we met him at work however, the gruff and softly-spoken Senior Deputy Captain made it all sound very low-key.

"Between September and February it was quite an intense time," he said with a touch of understatement. "Sometimes I'd only be home a day then I'd head back out again."

Across at least 11 deployments the 70-year-old drove trucks, bussed firefighters, and held a hose on the thermal-battlefields of Dubbo, Cooma, Tenterfield, Casino, and Ralston.

"Twice we saw a Pyrocumulus cloud develop - which is a cloud that gets too heavy and just collapses in on itself and causes all sorts of mayhem," he said.

"It was pretty dramatic, with small fires and all of a sudden everything changes and they get higher than this building at 100 miles an hour.

"We were in an open paddock keeping an eye on the fire, and then it went dark and a flash of lighting and the wind picked up and the fire took off."

Despite his service record, the Mr Olde appears completely uninterested in self-promotion: "It's nice to be recognised, but there were a lot of us there and it wasn't just me.

"We're fire fighters, we help the community - we help do as much as we can ... when the rest of the NSW community needs help we help out."

He says he loves the work even if, as he jokes, firefighters don't get to slide down metal poles at the station anymore: "They call that pole dancing now."

What he does still get to do, however, is far more impressive - and Operations Officer Guy Sadler says Mr Olde's dedication makes him an inspiration to the rest of the unit.

"For him in particular ... he's just willing to do anything - we ring him up and ask can you do such and such and he's just always on the ball," Sadler said.

Only four other disasters have called for the National Emergency Medal: the 2009 Victoria bushfires, 2011 Queensland floods, 2017 Cyclone Debbie, and 2019 Queensland floods.

The Canobolas Zone RFS Unit reports 125 local volunteers earned the award for services during the most recent NSW bushfires - contributing 1975 man-hours between them.

Mr Olde was keen to remind us he was only one them, and explained anyone can contribute to make the community a safer place.

"I live out of town and in 2013 had a big pile of wood I needed to have burned, and the RFS came and said they were looking for new members," he said.

"A few months after that I decided to do something about it and I joined and it's just gone from there.

"The team and comradery in the Canobolas Fire Control Centre is just brilliant, it's a good community and you'll meet some great people."

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