It is this great service, and a commitment to teaching others the message of fire safety, that has earned the MFB firefighter an Australian Fire Service Medal in the Queen's Birthday honours.

"I guess I consider myself a community asset. You end up helping people you don't know and will probably never see again," Mr Audsley said.

He enjoys working in Brimbank, with all its cultural diversity, and providing practical advice to all residents.

"Part of my job is about getting the fire safety message out to different cultures," he said.

"One of the main messages we have to teach them is making sure they have a working smoke alarm, and that means changing the batteries regularly."

Mr Audsley started his career in tactical rescue in Richmond. He also has years of experience in road accident rescue and as a rescue operator.

He said people often thought of firefighters as exciting heroes, but the reality was sometimes far from that.

"You are going out to these horrific incidents and seeing really terrible things, like house fires and car accidents.

"Sometimes it's the really small things that get to you. You'll go to a car accident and see a lady wearing the same dress as your wife or something like that. You have to learn not to associate things with your life."

One of his happier rescues involved helping an elderly man from a house fire in Braybrook.

"The elderly gentleman was cooking sausages on the stove and had a heart attack," Mr Audsley recalled. "The sausages started burning and set off the smoke alarm. Luckily a neighbour heard the alarm and called triple-0."

When crews arrived they saw the man lying on the floor and were able to rescue him - and the sausages.

"Because all the smoke had risen, he was lying on the floor where all the fresh air was. It's stories like that that make it worthwhile."

Mr Audsley's wife Kerry is proud of his achievement. He was waiting until the official announcement, on yesterday's public holiday, to tell his children about the award.

While he is now more involved in the operational side, Mr Audsley is still an active firefighter and will continue spreading his fire safety messages to migrant communities and schoolchildren.