PETER Brick of Nicholson in East Gippsland, a Senior Emergency Management Capability Specialist with Forest Fire Management Victoria has been awarded the prestigious Australian Fire Service Medal (AFSM) in today’s Australia Day Honours list.
Mr Brick, who has provided 24 years of dedicated service to bushfire response on the fireground and in incident management teams, was one of the incident controllers for The Gurdies bushfire in December 2024.
He took time out of his operational role, once the fire was under control, to meet with the community and provide them with a briefing on the status of the fire.
He received his award for distinguished service as a member of the Australian fire services.
Mr Brick is currently accredited as a level three incident controller, a level two operations officer and is a regional agency commander.
He has led many taskforces and many incident management teams through some difficult and challenging deployments, with the safety of firefighters his first and foremost priority.
He has attended multiple major fires across Victoria during his career and has proudly represented Victoria on interstate deployments to New South Wales, Western Australia and Tasmania. In 2023 he was responsible for leading an Australian Incident Management Team in Alberta, Canada.
Mr Brick has been and continues to be a dedicated trainer and assessor and takes pride in giving his time to assist with the development staff capability in fire roles and, more broadly, the future capability of Forest Fire Management Victoria.
Mr Brick has built very strong relationships with the local community, is well respected and always has the support of the community at local briefings.
He has also built and maintains very important relationships with key members of other emergency management organisations. These relationships serve Mr Brick and Forest Fire Management Victoria well within regional control teams and state briefings.
Recognition of his dedication, commitment and experience will be welcomed locally as well as in East Gippsland.