RFS boss Shane Fitzsimmons steps into new role in disaster recovery

Fire hero Shane Fitzsimmons signed off after 13 years as Rural Fire Service Commissioner on Thursday but there will be no rest for the man who guided NSW through the worst bushfire season in living memory. He starts at his new job on Friday.

• ‘Like a war zone’: Photographing the bushfire crisis
• Crisis will rewrite the book on fighting fires

Fire hero Shane Fitzsimmons signed off after 13 years as Rural Fire Service Commissioner on Thursday with a warning: “Don’t be complacent.”

After a round of applause, a salute and a socially-distanced morning tea, there will be no rest for the man who steered the state through the worst fire season in memory this year.

RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons and his wife Lisa leave the NSW headquarters on his last day. Picture: Christian Gilles

On Friday he begins his new job leading the newly-created disaster recovery agency Resilience NSW, helping communities prepare for, and recover from, disasters.

MORE NEWS

Mission Zero: How close is NSW to no new COVID-19 cases?

Buzz: Why Latrell has been treated unfairly

‘I’m not proud of it’: Armytage’s weight gain confession

Mr Fitzsimmons had planned to step down as RFS commissioner before summer’s horror fires, but delayed his resignation because “it just didn’t feel right to leave”.

“I’m extremely grateful to all my colleagues and, in particular, the more than 70,000 volunteers right across NSW, without whom we would all be very much the poorer as local communities (and) as the state of NSW,” he said.

Mr Fitzsimmons paid tribute to the volunteer firefighters. Picture: Darren Pateman/AAP

Mr Fitzsimmons used his last day at the RFS to warn this year’s fire season could pose a different danger, with long-term rain forecast, but said: “I have every confidence Commissioner Rob Rogers and all the team will be as prepared as they can be, whatever the season presents as we head into 2021.

“Please don’t be complacent. Focus on understanding and accepting your level of risk.

“But, most importantly, do something about that risk.

“Having a bushfire survival plan, preparing your home, preparing your property, preparing your loved ones.”

Mr Fitzsimmons pins a posthumous service medal on Harvey Keaton whose dad Geoffrey Keaton died fighting the fires. Picture: James Morris/NSW RFS Media Services

Resilience NSW is tasked with bringing together all aspects of government to help communities prepare for and recover from disasters.

“Resilience NSW will be very important … for government and the people of NSW, and I’m really proud to be a part of that,” Mr Fitzsimmons said.

“It will be an enormous challenge.

Mr Fitzsimmons has already been receiving briefings about the work being done to help fire and drought-affected communities to recover, as well as on “the initiatives and programs anticipating the release of restrictions” as the state recovers from COVID-19.

Premier Gladys Berejiklianwith Mr Fitzsimmons during the bushfire crisis. Picture: Bianca De Marchi/AAP

Premier Gladys Berejiklian thanked Mr Fitzsimmons for his service, saying NSW owed a debt of gratitude to the outgoing commissioner.

Our state’s fire hero said he felt emotional putting on his RFS uniform for the last time yesterday morning.

“The uniform is very much symbolic of an extraordinary team,” he said.

“It helps me because I don’t have to make too many decisions, but I'm not going to miss having to put badges and pins on my shirt every morning.”

Originally published as RFS boss Shane Fitzsimmons steps into new role in disaster recovery