Mr Pattie and Mr Nugent were presented with their medals by NSW Governor Professor Marie Bashir at a special ceremony at Government House, Sydney, last month.

The duo was awarded for their heroics after saving a young boy at Tura Beach on September 18, 2005.

A group of youths dug a large hole approximately three metres deep by three metres wide in the sand at Tura Beach.

The trench collapsed and a boy was trapped up to his waste.

Emergency service officers and members of the public attempted without success to free the trapped boy.

In a worsening situation caused by a storm, ambulance officers had breathing apparatus on the boy’s face fearing he could be buried alive.

Retained firefighters Mr Nugent and Mr Pattie were face down in the hole removing sand from the boy’s feet with partial collapses of sand occurring as each attempt was made to pull him free.

Despite the danger of eminent collapse the firefighters remained at their task until the boy was finally rescued nearly two hours after the initial sand collapse.

Mr Pattie said receiving the medal was a humbling experience.

“We were pretty honoured to represent our local station at the awards ceremony,” he said.

“It was also very special to have our partners at the ceremony. It’s not every day someone receives an award like this and when you think we were only doing our job, it’s pretty special.

“It was a risky rescue but we could not have done it without the support of the whole brigade.”

Their award was the first presented of its kind to the Merimbula Fire Brigade.

As a result of the rescue the NSW Fire Brigade adopted the local brigade’s trench rescue plan as a standard operation procedure.