Ian Irons is a brigade lifer and Hawkesburian through and through

Mr Irons grew up on the same property he lives on now, just off Windsor Road.

If you have been in the Hawkesbury for a while, you might know Mr Irons from the many years he owned Windsor Cakes.

The Hawkesbury is a special place to him.

"You're halfway to anywhere you want to go," Mr Irons said.

"It's close to everything. It has basically everything here, and the people are nice. It's big enough to be worldly, but it's small enough that you still run across people you went to school with. It's a nice place to be."

Mr Irons was recently awarded his 4th Clasp for 50 years of service to the New South Wales Rural Fire Service and his dedication to the Oakville Brigade and the community.

He organises the well-known Oakville Bush Fire Brigade Car Show and Family Fun Day, and performs many duties while there are fires, including driving the water truck to meet the tankers.

"I like the social part of it - the people, the camaraderie, and the competitions they used to run," he said.

"In the early days, we played around with some of the machinery - I fitted different motors to different pumps."

His brigade buddy, Ray Powe, who received his 4th Clasp alongside Mr Irons, was with him in the brigade since the beginning.

"We went to Richmond High School together - that was the only high school that was around back then. He conned me into going up to the fire brigade and we've been doing that ever since," Mr Irons said.

"We used to love modifying trucks and cars and modifying things on the trucks but now they have experts who do all that. We were the experts back in the day, though."

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When he's not involved in brigade meetings and duties, Mr Irons runs Sydney Off-Road Racing Association at Colo Heights.

"Most of my spare time has been racing cars and playing with off-road cars and organising races," he said.

"My wife Rhonda has always been supportive of everything I do and the brigade does. Without support from her, we wouldn't be able to do some of the stuff we do in the brigade."