Queanbeyan police’s sergeant Paul Batista spoke on behalf of the emergency services.

He told the gathered crowd that the time they devote to training was appreciated by the community, particularly during events like fires.

“How we didn’t lose anyone I’ll never know, but it was your efforts… that got us through such a catastrophic day that we had,” sergeant Batista said.

“From the bottom of my heart, thank you. Thank God for our volunteers.”

Rural Fire Service membership services officer Darren Marks said there was an overwhelming sense of satisfaction that no lives were lost during the fires, and that was a result of the collaboration between all agencies involved.

He humbly said the thank you reception was “a little bit embarrassing”, because he and his colleagues don’t do the work for recognition.

“One of the things I think about us being a volunteer organisation - even if I’m a staff member, I was a volunteer first - we do it because we want to do it,” Mr Marks said.

“We go home from a major fire going, hopefully, we put this fire out. We did what we set out to do. We did what we’re in this organisation to do. That’s a fantastic sense of satisfaction just there.”

A Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council spokesman said the volunteers deserve full recognition for their efforts. “The reception recognised the outstanding commitment of rural fire service volunteers, SES members, the appeal panel who oversaw fundraising efforts, and a number of individuals who did an enormous job assisting with various forms of relief including the rescue and caring of livestock during, and in the aftermath, of the fire,” the spokesman said.

“While the selfless volunteers deserve full recognition for their efforts, the outstanding commitment of first responders and those dedicated members of our community employed to protect and care for us cannot be understated and we thank them for their efforts while going about their everyday duties.”