Paul Dorin, station commander at 269 Corrimal Fire and Rescue, has been honoured with the highest award a firefighter in this country can receive: the Australian Fire Service Medal (ASFM).
Captain Dorin received the ASFM in recognition of his 32 years in Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW) in June as part of the Governor-General's King's Birthday 2024 Honours List.
“I’ve been able to achieve a lot of things over the years especially with fire safety and it’s really nice recognition for me to be nominated and to actually have received it,” Paul said.
“The award is a very proud moment for myself but also a proud moment for the Illawarra and its firefighters.”
Paul is also a cartoonist for The Catholic Weekly and has always loved to draw, a talent that runs in the family. Art works well with firefighting, as his creative career gives him the flexibility to also fulfil fire station commitments.
When Paul was 16, he saw Rural Fire Service (RFS) volunteers fighting a bushfire and this moment resonated so much with him that the next week he joined Bulli RFS, where he served for eight years.
“That really sort of inspired me and who I am today, my time spent out there and being mentored by those firefighters,” Paul said.
Paul isn’t the only firefighter in his family; his aunt’s brothers were members of the Corrimal Fire Brigade, and her father was once the captain. This family connection inspired Paul to join the Corrimal station at age 23 and he has never looked back.
“Even back then, I was rushing out the door to fire calls as quickly as I am today,” Paul said.
As station commander at Corrimal, today Paul oversees 17 firefighters, managing availability, budgets, timesheets and administrative tasks. He is heavily involved in the community, routinely discussing fire safety, including lithium battery concerns, with people of all ages. He also still responds to fire calls when needed and credits his crew with making it easy to juggle his diverse responsibilities.
“We've got a really fantastic station here and a great, great mix of crew,” Paul said.
“It's the camaraderie, I think that's what drives the station to work so well.”
The role has its challenges, including being on call and having to rush out to emergency incidents, which affects his home life.
Fortunately, firefighters look out for each other's mental health.
“It’s a brotherhood and sisterhood, they become family and you always want to be there for your family,” Paul said.
“At my station they look out for me as well, they can notice a change or something different in me.
“It's nice that they can feel comfortable approaching me with something, it could be affecting me from a call or an incident that we attended to.”
Despite the difficulties, the job offers many rewards, from camaraderie to the satisfaction of being able to help people.
“The other biggest achievement is your ability to make someone in the community who is having the worst day of their life and turn up to put them at ease."
Paul is a strong advocate for fire safety, emphasising the importance of working smoke alarms. After more than 1100 house fires were reported one winter due to items such as electric blankets and heaters, he started a program connecting disability-care facilities with smoke alarm inspections and promoted the fire brigade’s free home-safety checks.
Paul also helped establish June 1 as Smoke Alarm Action Day, urging people to check their alarms are functional.
“We want everyone to take five minutes out of their day, just to test their smoke alarm to make sure it’s working,” Paul said.
“If you don't have a working smoke alarm, you should be sleeping with one eye open.
“Statistics are showing us that there’s about 50 percent of people that don’t have a working smoke alarm in their homes and that is something that we really need to get fixed up because they are life-saving devices.”
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