MANGOOLA NSW Rural Fire Service (NSW RFS) crew member Griffin Hughes admits he's overwhelmed by his recent meteoric rise to fame.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
A video of the 20-year-old volunteer boot-scooting to The Git Up by US singer Blanco Brown, while "on the job" at the weekend, has received more than 900,000 views, attracted in excess of 14,000 reactions and been shared almost 19,000 times.
He's also become a bit of a media darling, conducting many print, radio and television interviews, over the past couple of days.
"Yeah, it's full-on; I can't comprehend it," Hughes said.
"I'm still in that euphoric stage I guess.
"However, I am totally surprised by how it's gone - and extremely appreciative of the response.
"To be honest, I'm super, super shocked," he added with a laugh.
The youngster provided fellow hard-working colleagues with the "entertainment" during a dinner break, while NSW RFS brigades undertook a back-burning operation in the Widden Valley on Sunday evening.
"Matt [Danks] put on some music, so I broke out the moves," explained Hughes, who'll head back to Victoria on January 24.
"Afterwards, I said to him 'how funny would it be if it went viral?'
"Then I didn't think much of it, until my Captain Shaun Hunter contacted me, saying it had reached 10,000 views.
"Now, it's up to 900,000 or so and more than 1.5 million hits.
"That's pretty incredible.
"But, it's good to keep morale up in those kinds of situations.
"All the guys are slogging away, around the clock, to keep everyone safe from the current run of bushfires.
"So, I'm glad to put a smile on people's faces."
Captain Hunter also threw his support behind the brigade's much-loved performer.
"Griff's certainly a character," he said.
"Now that he's in the Australian Defence Force (ADF), we only see him every few months.
"To be honest, he is currently on a five-week break.
"However, he's a Denman local through and through.
"The crew loves that sort of stuff.
"And, I'm delighted everyone has taken it [the video] positively.
"Although the blokes have been busy, it's still important to have a sense of humour.
"I think Griff's proved that."
