AFSM honour for fire scientist

Following a career of distinguished service driven by a strong commitment to improving community safety, Michael Wouters has been awarded the Australian Fire Service Medal (AFSM).

Mr Wouters was nominated as part of the King’s Birthday 2026 Honours List by the SA Country Fire Service (CFS) in conjunction with National Parks and Wildlife Service.

While working as a seasonal fire crew member and research assistant in Victoria during his university studies, Mr Wouters developed a passion for fire management, behaviour, and science.

This passion led him from Victoria to South Australia where he led the Fire Science, Predictive Services and Incident Mapping functions within the Department for Environment and Water and was instrumental in establishing the state’s fire behaviour analysis and incident mapping capability.

These capabilities are now central to bushfire operations, providing enhanced situational awareness and supporting safer, more effective decision-making during major incidents.

“When I first came to South Australia, we just didn’t have that capacity. Over a decade, we were able to slowly build that function to what it is now,” Mr Wouters said.

“It's a small team but it's one that can be call upon it when needed and support the planning process during an incident.”

“We started from maybe one or 2 people and now we've got a good crop of people and we're still trying to train more.”

A passion for fire behaviour

Mr Wouters has long been recognised for his passion for understanding fire behaviour and translating complex science into real-time operational decision-making, the benefits of which were first seen during the 2015 Pinery fire.

“I think that was probably the first time that those predictions or bits of information were actually very useful to the planning teams that were running the fire,” he said.

“It made a difference because we were able to understand and predict where and when the wind change would come and also that it would actually die down at a certain time.”

Mr Wouters was proud to receive the AFSM, a peer-nominated medal awarded by the Governor General recognising distinguished service by a member of an Australian fire service.   

“I’m proud and grateful to receive the medal but I also see it as a reflection of the work of all the people I’ve worked with over the years,” Mr Wouters said.

“It’s also a reflection of our families and loved ones that have given us the support to do this work. Everyone’s played their part.”

Beyond his work in South Australia, Mr Wouters’s influence extends nationally through his leadership within the Australasian Fire and Emergency Service Authorities Council, including his role as Chair of the Predictive Services Group during the challenging period following the 2019–20 Black Summer bushfires. He also established the Predictive Services (Bushfire) Practitioners’ Network, fostering a national community of practice that continues to support frontline analysts and emergency managers.