BRETT Fitzpatrick is the fifth generation of his family to have farmed the 485 hectare Gregaldon, just outside of Oberon.
Mr Fitzpatrick has been Hazelgrove Rural Fire Service captain for about 10 years and is NSW Farmers Oberon branch president.
He welcomed the NSW Bushfire Inquiry report, but on Tuesday afternoon hadn't got through the full 466 pages of it, given it was only released four hours earlier.
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Mr Fitzpatrick said he hoped RFS Commissioner Rob Rogers, who took on the role in July, can save the service.
He said there had been an enormous culture shift at the RFS and with it a loss of practicality and respect.
It is with no regret Mr Fitzpatrick ordered the Hazelgrove truck to remain in its area rather than move to Lithgow during the Gosper's Mountain fire.
That fire, which ignited on October 26 last year and wasn't contained until January 30 this year, burned 512,000ha.
HAD the Hazelgrove truck gone "that would have left no fire-fighting apparatus in the district," he said of the day the request came through.
"Many local trucks were already working fires out of the area."
Mr Fitzpatrick did however spend time in and out of the Olinda fireground.
He said there were areas left to their own devices where, "it was just farmers fighting with their own gear".
"I heard people saying it was a lot like the 2017 Sir Ivan fire.
"It was being managed from afar, I think it was Mudgee, people didn't know the area and they didn't seem to listen," said Mr Fitzpatrick.
"They seemed scared to act, and it's good they're scared because lighting backburns isn't for everybody, but letting thousands of acres burn and doing nothing, that's not the answer either.
"They've done a training course - that's good - but listening to farmers and land managers who live here is important," he said.
"Experienced people aren't being treated with respect."
"This is a clear message for Mr Rogers at the beginning of his new role, don't make the same mistakes as former commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons."
Mr Fitzpatrick said under Mr Fitzsimmon's leadership a lack of respect had spilled right through the RFS organisation and even outsiders were copping the brunt of a huge cultural change that has gripped the service.
"FITZSIMMONS urbanised the whole brigade," said Mr Fitzpatrick.
"It's very Sydney centric these days.
"And there's no recognition of the roles farmers play and the rapid response units that they man and just how important critical early action is," he said.
"For some unknown reason Fitzsimmons is the golden boy.
"He was in charge and should be held accountable for how fires were managed.
"This was a state issue all along, never federal," he said.
"The manner in which he threw Scott Morrison, our prime minister, under the bus is indicative of how people are being treated generally outside of the new RFS bureaucracy.
"You can be a farmer, you can be the prime minister, there's still no respect, it's bloody disgusting," said Mr Fitzpatrick.
"If one of our brigade had refused to shake hands with the prime minister I would have eaten them without salt.
"When you look at the RFS now you have to wonder, it has no labour costs because everyone volunteers for nothing.
"If it was a true business it'd go broke pretty quickly," said Mr Fitzpatrick.
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