Meet Jack Sealey, the volunteer still manning the radio controls for the RFS at the age of 93

Great-grandfather Jack Sealey has spent most of his 93 years keeping an ear out for others.

Mr Sealey is a volunteer with the Rural Fire Service at Queanbeyan in New South Wales - manning the radio controls to communicate with crews on fire grounds.

He's been doing this for nearly 60 years and says there is one thing that still drives him.

"The need to have something that keeps our people safe," he says.

"We're there when they call, and we hope they're there when we call. And if they're not, we keep calling and keep calling until we reach them."

Mr Sealey's passion for radio communications started at the age of 19, when he joined the Royal Australian Airforce during World War II.

He trained at a radio school in Plymouth, England, and was preparing for his first operation, in the Atlantic, in 1945, when he received a message.

"We were in a hut at one of the radio schools, trained and ready to go," he tells Nine News.

"We were all lying in bed one morning when a voice came over the (loudspeaker) - the voice said 'Allied forces have landed in France this morning."

"That was D-Day."

With his military career over, Mr Sealey returned home to Sydney, and used his training as a wireless radio operator to fight a different kind of battle.

He relocated to Queanbeyan for work, and joined the local RFS - writing a procedure manual on how to use the service's radio equipment.

"All this new lovely shiny radio gear comes in and being an ex-wireless operator from the airforce, I'm not going to see this get knocked about," he says.

The manual he wrote in 1960 is still used today.

Mr Sealey has watched over the community on some of its worst days.

He manned the radio controls during Canberra's devastating 2003 bushfires, which tore through the capital's suburbs, killing four people and destroying nearly 500 homes.

But he says one of the most difficult day on the job was in March 1985, when arsonists started fires near Canberra.

The flames spread into New South Wales and an RFS volunteer was killed.

"We lost a man in '85," he says.

"I was there on the end when it was happening...you still think about it. It's still there."

Decades on, Mr Sealey continues to play a crucial role within the team.

"Jack has been working in rooms like this since the 1960s," Lake George RFS District Manager Tim Carroll tells Nine News.

"He's gone through a range of changes with the RFS and with radio-communications and he brings all of that background and experience with him when he's talking to new members."

In the event of a fire, Mr Sealey will gather information from the fireground and feed it back.

"Jack will be dealing with issues such as the location of trucks, movement of the fire, details on the assets that may be under threat," Supt. Carroll says.

"Or he's collecting information that we need to get out to the community."

The 93-year-old also trains new generations of RFS radio operators.

Volunteer Steve Forbes met Mr Sealey more than 20 years ago, when he was 15 years old.

"In the early days, Jack wouldn't let us loose on the radios or to pick up the phones," he says.

"You had to earn your keep."

"I was amazed by Jack. Jack always taught me if you commit to something, then stick to it. And that's always rung true with everything he does."

Though over the years, his hours have reduced, Mr Sealey still regularly volunteers at Queanbeyan RFS.

He says he'll keep manning the radios there until he no longer can.

"It's been a labour of love," he tells Nine News.

"It still is."