NSW bushfires: Rural fire chief Shane Fitzsimmons leaves fellow officers in awe of his leadership
Rural fire chief Shane Fitzsimmons is surviving on a few hours sleep while leading 74,000 volunteers – the world’s largest fire service – through the state’s worst blaze crisis in history. Fellow officers are in awe of his calm, focus, stamina and empathy.
NSW
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Rural fire chief Shane Fitzsimmons has been surviving on just a few hours sleep as he leads a volunteer force of 72,000 men and women through the worst blaze crisis NSW has seen.
Fellow officers speak in awe of his calm, focus, stamina and empathy as he criss-crosses the state to inspect disaster zones and talk to bereaved families.
That is why his very rarely expressed public frustration with Prime Minister Scott Morrison about Defence’s failure to tell him 3000 army reservists had been deployed has brought forward firefighters from every level to support him.
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Assistant Commissioner Rebel Talbert said: “He has been doing some very intense hours, very long days that have run into weeks and months. He has been travelling all over the state through all hours of the night to be where our firefighters have been hurt and keeps operating on very little sleep,” she said.
Through it all he has remained calm and focused … until yesterday.
Mr Fitzsimmons said he had spent “more time with the Premier of NSW than I have with my wife” and that illustrated the incredible support he had received from the government for the multi-agency battle to tackle the “unprecedented” fires.
“I could not be more proud of our firefighters and my role as commissioner is that I am not expecting anything more of my people than I am prepared to put in myself,” he said.
Yesterday they went into bat for him.
“What is great about Shane is that he is a plain speaker,” Ms Talbert said wryly, as Mr Morrison found out to his cost.
A heartfelt story out of the NSW Far South Coast. Chris & Leisa Tague lost their house on New Years Day, and have been volunteering at the local Fire Control Centre ever since. Today was their wedding anniversary. This truly is the meaning of community spirit #nswrfs pic.twitter.com/4n8EEopmbC
— NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) January 5, 2020
Mr Fitzsimmons said he was very disappointed he only found out about the Prime Minister’s deployment of army reservists from media reports.
“I did say something because I was quite annoyed and rather offended for the state of NSW for this to be announced while we were running one of the biggest operations on one of the worst days in our state’s history,” he told The Daily Telegraph. He said the “lack of professional courtesy” meant his team “spent a fair amount of the day yesterday trying to seek clarity’’.
Mr Morrison met with Mr Fitzsimmons yesterday and admitted there was a “breakdown” in communication between Defence and the Rural Fire Service.
The PM said yesterday he had called Premier Gladys Berejiklian in advance.
Mr Fitzsimmons said he had received an apology.
“I have had a meeting with the Prime Minister and the new major general and I am confident we can get it right,” Mr Fitzsimmons said.
The PM went on to praise the work that had been done by Mr Fitzsimmons, calling it “extraordinary’’.
That has been echoed by firefighters from the top to the bottom. RFS Assistant Commissioner Rob Rogers said: “These fires have been very polarising politically but it is nice to see the people that really matter, the Australian community, rallying round. We have been focused on saving life number one and property number two — Shane has been very focused on delivering these services and making sure we do everything we can.”
He was with Mr Fitzsimmons when he started with the Duffys Forest Brigade as a 15-year-old and saw the impact losing his 53-year-old father George during a hazard reduction burn had on him almost 20 years ago.
“I have never found someone who is able to be as supportive to people in need as Shane. He is able to put everything else on hold and focus on that family which has just received such devastating news,” he said.
Exhausted Bundanoon firefighter Peter Lockerbie had the highest praise.
“We’d follow him anywhere,” Mr Lockerbie said. “He has lived it, he’s been out there beside us and fought fires himself. Shane Fitzsimmons is fantastic.”