The Sunday Herald Sun reports that Kinglake policeman Cameron Caine is seeking compensation from Victoria Police.

Journalist Anthony Dowsley says Leading Senior Constable Cameron Caine has been unable to work for the past 13 months as a result of post-traumatic stress disorder after the Black Saturday bushfires.

Caine was awarded a Victoria Police Valour Award and an Order of Australia Medal for his heroism.

The newspaper says that Caine alleges the force was negligent in leaving him “one up’’ or working solo.

“Sen-Constable Caine risked his life at the face of the 2009 fires, working 30 hours straight to get locals to safety. Within two hours he identified 11 people, some of them friends, who perished in the inferno,” the newspaper reports.

“His writ is yet to be lodged, but will state the force was negligent for keeping him on a 30-hour shift while ­refusing to send extra officers to help at the high point of the carnage.

“He said then chief commissioner Simon Overland personally apologised for leaving him to battle solo. But the now 47-year-old can no longer work operationally or deal with conflict, bodies or fire,” Dowsley reports

“I got to the point I started yelling at my colleagues.”

“It just wasn’t me. The anger was massive. I couldn’t sleep. I still don’t sleep. I lost myself on February 7, 2009. That’s the big thing. I miss me,” Caine is said to have told the newspaper.

In the newspaper report, he pays tribute to wife Laura and family. Every day he passes places where he witnessed devastation of both property and people.

He said one of the issues he faced was that to be ­reassigned to a police desk job, he first had to work again in Kinglake.

He said: “It’s like getting cancer at Chernobyl, getting cured and getting sent back to Chernobyl’’.

“I can’t give anymore, I’m burnt out. I’ve given all I can,’’ he said.

His lawyer, Harry Gill, a principal at Robinson Gill Lawyers, said: “In 35 years as a personal injury lawyer I’ve never read a statement that has driven me closer to tears. Cameron was left to his own devices in unimaginable circumstances. He sought assistance but got nothing from police command,’’ he said.