Firefighter Scott Shadbolt was supposed to finish painting his bedroom on February 22, 2011.

Instead, his heroic actions during Christchurch's devastating earthquake have led to him becoming the fourth person to receive the rare Valour Medal by the United Fire Brigades' Association.

Shadbolt, Australian urologist Lydia Johns-Putra, police sergeant Danny Johanson, and anaesthetist Bryce Curran together worked to save the life of Brian Coker in the collapsed PGC building.

Coker's legs were pinned under rubble and had to be amputated by the group with a hacksaw and a Leatherman knife to save his life.

The New Zealand Valour Medal has been presented three times since its inception in 1880.

It is awarded to those who show "exceptional personal courage while saving, or attempting to save, human life and in doing so they may have placed their own life in danger".

Eighty-three firefighters have received valour certificates.

Shadbolt said he was painting his bedroom in Rangiora when the quake struck. He raced to pick up his children from school and kindergarten and rang his wife, Melanie Mark-Shadbolt, who was making her way out of the central city.

"She told me all hell had broken loose and I best get myself to work. I went to the station grabbed some equipment and met up with some of the others there and we headed to the central city.

"I was assigned the task of going to the PGC building - it could've been anyone."

There he met up with the group who would save Coker's life.

"All they knew about me was the patches on my shoulder - that was enough for them."

Other events that day also played on his mind, he said.

"There were other tragedies which weighed heavy on the heart that day.

"I remember when we were in the dark breaking the cathedral apart trying to find people - the quietness and the darkness of the city - it felt like a war zone. There was just the birds and us," he said.

He remembers the sound of the car and burglar alarms screeching and the smell of hand sanitiser takes him back to that day.

"Our training as firefighters got us through. Getting to a situation problem solving it," Shadbolt said.