And winning the award for Firefighter of the Year also took Chris, 19, by surprise when he attended Saturday’s presentation night.

“I’ve always been in the surf club and I’ve always enjoyed volunteering and I just thought the CFA (Country Fire Authority) would be a good thing to go into,” Chris said.

“I’ve been on strike teams and heaps of structure fires, hazardous materials, road rescues and that sort of thing.

“My Pa’s unit, I got called to that one day. It had a kitchen fire. Then a few months later I got called – someone had driven into his back fence.”

Chris said that while a shed fire at Illowa was the most intense fire he had attended, the first big fire he had fought was in the Grampians. 

“That was the first time I’d actually been in burnt bush area. So that was quite an experience,” he said.

“That’s probably the ones that stick out the most.”

The volunteer firefighter – who also works as both a paid and volunteer surf lifesaver – said it was a privilege working alongside the career firefighters at Warrnambool’s integrated station.

Chris said he was planning to switch from his environmental science uni course next year to para-medicine, or maybe turn his sights towards becoming a career firefighter. 

Aaron Hume, 24, who has also been a volunteer firefighter for three years, received the encouragement award on Saturday night.

Aaron said he had been to a shed fire, a few burn-offs and joined strike teams blacking out areas.  “I mainly go on strike teams, on the hose, set up hydrants, control traffic,” he said.

The Warrnambool Fire Brigade received 592 calls for help in the 2015/16 financial year, according to its newly released annual report.

Operations officer Paul Marshall said the number of call-outs had jumped about 20 per cent on the previous year.

He said the increase was mainly because the new aerial pumper had begun operating in the south-west during March when the new fire station opened in Mortlake Road.

Mr Marshall said the aerial pumper was used to attend call-outs to places where there was a high risk to life, such as hospitals and aged-care facilities.

He said the aged-care facilities and hospitals in Port Fairy and Terang were now covered by the aerial tanker, and it would automatically be sent when an alarm was triggered at those buildings.

“All alarms are treated as real calls. Trucks are on the road within 90 seconds in Warrnambool,” he said.