The Gore Volunteer Fire Brigade Chief Fire Officer will be presented with the United Fire Brigade Association of New Zealand’s gold star medal at the brigade’s awards ceremony on Saturday night.
He will also receive life membership of the brigade. He has been the chief fire officer since 2012.
Mr Lee said the team approach was very important to the brigade’s work.
"An individual on his or her own can’t achieve those results, but a team of people working together can."
He was grateful for the trust and support of brigade members.
"It’s great to be part of an outstanding group of men and women who are really focused on helping members of our community, particularly when they are in need."
He was also very thankful for the support of his wife Adrienne and his family.
"I wouldn’t have been able to do it without that level of support."
Being able to successfully lobby Fire and Emergency New Zealand for a larger pump-capacity fire truck in 2019 was another highlight of his time in the brigade.
Helping people in their time of need "shapes us as individuals".
"When you join a fire brigade you not only learn about firefighting and rescue, but you also learn a lot about life skills and you learn a lot about team work and you learn a lot about trust.
"They’re some of the values that make up a good volunteer fire brigade."
When CFO Lee was asked to join the brigade in 1999 he had four days of the week free as he was worked a three-day shift that included the weekend.
In the past 25 years he had attended memorable events including the fires set by an arsonist in the early 2000s, the Livestock Supplies factory fire in 2014 and the 2016 rescue of a person trapped in a grain silo.
There had also been several flooding events in the 25-year period.
However, when he reflected on the callouts he had attended it was the ones that did not make the newspaper headlines that were often the most satisfying.
There had been several times when the team had attended a medical callout and through administering CPR had saved someone’s life.
"As a team we’ve extracted persons trapped in motor vehicle accidents and had them transferred to the rescue helicopter, and there’s been some favourable results from that."
Health and safety provisions had greatly improved during his time in the brigade. One example was the flash hoods that members now wore inside their helmets to protect their heads. Before flash hoods were issued, firefighters were told to back away from a fire when they felt their ears getting "crispy".
