Fitter, Faster, Stronger

by Lorna Lowe

Friday, June 15, 2012

Reaching the top of the tower, these two firefighters haul 40lbs of fire hose hand over hand, all the way up.

Fitter, faster, stronger is the tag line that FireFit uses to describe itself, and over the weekend of June 9 & 10, there were many examples of people that took that motto to heart.

FireFit is a fitness and skills competition for professional firefighters that is quickly growing in popularity. There are competitions worldwide, with the international championships taking place in Dubai every year. Last weekend, the final Western Canadian qualifying challenge was held at the LRC in Leduc.

One hundred and forty six Firefighters from as far away as Red Lake, Ontario, and Nunavut showed up to take the FireFit Challenge.

The opening ceremonies on Saturday morning began with a piper leading all the competitors on the course, where Deputy Mayor Glen Finstad, welcomed everyone to Leduc and wished them the best in competition. Then Pastor Blaine Gregg, from St. David's United Church, read aloud the firefighter's prayer and everyone paused for a moment of silence for the firefighters that had been lost in the line of duty.

Fern Richardson led the crowd in a rendition of O' Canada, as a massive Canadian flag fluttered in the breeze overhead, hung from an extended ladder on one of the Leduc fire trucks.

Once the ceremonies were over, Leduc City Firefighter Kerry Harper, gave a sample run through the course. The course begins at the bottom of a steel tower, where two firefighters are geared up in their full kit, boots, helmets, gloves and all, including using their air packs to breathe. When the buzzer sounds they pick up a 40lb length of hose and run up the six flights of steps to the top of the tower. Once at the top, they move to the tower railing and haul another 40lb roll of hose up a rope, hand over hand, to the tower platform. At that point, the firefighters turn and race down the six flights of stairs, where they cannot miss hitting one step along the way, and once at the bottom they jump onto a steel platform with a heavy metal block in the center, called a Forcible Entry Machine, that they have to pound with a sledgehammer and move a designated length. Once that is accomplished, they jump off the machine and run through a slalom course of fire hydrants to pick up a charged fire hose and pull it half way back through the course to hit an accuracy target with a stream of water from the hose. When that is achieved, the hose can be dropped and the firefighter then moves to a 175lb dummy nicknamed "Rescue Randy", picks the "victim" up off the ground and drags him to safety at the end of the course.

Amazingly, the fastest firefighters out there can do this unbelievably demanding run in under two minutes. This competition requires an incredible amount of training and dedication just to make it through the course at all. A lot of firefighters cannot even finish the course. There was more than one firefighter over this last weekend who could not stand on their own at the end of their run, and had to be helped over to the medical tent to recover.

It takes a certain personality type to become a firefighter in the first place, so there is an element of that "never give up" attitude that can come out on the course as well. Such as with one female firefighter early on Saturday, who blazed through all the elements of the course and led the race right up until she had to pick up and drag Rescue Randy to the finish line. She was not very tall and had a problem getting a good grip on Randy, plus, she had obviously given it her all over the rest of the course and had hit the end of her energy at the last element. But would she give up and say she had done her best at that point? No way! This physically and mentally tough young woman fought, struggled, crawled, pulled, collapsed, and got back up numerous times, until, with the screams and applause of the crowd behind her, she hauled Rescue Randy across the finish line almost nine minutes after she began.

The crowd of hundreds that showed up all weekend long, even through the rain on Sunday, really got into the spirit of the competition. They cheered on every team and individual that took to the course, but there definitely was an extra decibel or two added to the uproar when members from the Leduc firehall were on course.

Even though every firefighter who took part in the FireFit Challenge are winners in their own right, officially there were a few who rose to the top at the Leduc Competition. The top three placings in each division are noted on the following page 17.

More Stories:

Griffiths-Scott News Sun burns are appearing and this just shows that summer is on its way. With only a month of school left at Griffiths- Scott, provincial achievement tests are being written and students are studying for final exams. The ...
LIGHTING UP PERFORMANCES The Wetaskiwin Summer Games Committee presented the Wetaskiwin Theatre Society with a cheque for $25,000.00 toward the stage lighting. Russ Aney presented the cheque to Ted Eden with Eldon Roth, Dot Brekke, Dave Dowler and ...
Airport Mysteries Unveiled EIA TOWER (31) The new NAV CANADA Control Tower at EIA offers a wide view of the runways, with paperless state-of-the-art technology. DominiqueVrolyk The Pipestone Flyer Leduc County AB – Disclosed globally via TV broadcasts, ...
DARE to resist drugs and alcohol During the 2012-2013 school year, Cst. Jackie Tessel of the Breton RCMP taught the DARE program at local schools. Approximately 100 students in grade 5/6 at Alder Flats Elementary, Winfield Elementary and Breton Elementary ...
Leduc High School Soccer One of the few sports not recognized by the Alberta Schools Athletic Association (ASAA) is Soccer. Since 1957 when the ASAA was first formed to provide a provincial tournament for basketball the ASAA has added eleven additional ...
Single Mother’s Day Event " Single Mother's Get Free Pampering At Single Mother's Day Event at Lighthouse Church."
What Does Nisku Mean? Most of the names of the communities located in central Alberta were acquired in the late 1890’s and early 1900’s. Many of the names came from individuals who first opened up the country as explorers or missionaries or by ...
Mothers Are Worthy Mothers, daughters, and grandmothers from the Warburg area celebrated Mother's Day this year with the annual Mother's Day Shortcake Tea May 11 at the Warburg Cultural Centre. The event was organized by the Warburg Bloomin' ...
Calmar Prairie Players New Hit: The Dangers of VD (Valentines Day) The cast of The Dangers of VD (Valentines Day) from back left to right: Nicole Sullivan as Jacqui Dyck, an overdramatic, boy crazed young lady that just can’t wait to be a grown up; Kelly Ainsworth as Jean Witherspoon, a ...
Possibilities Redefined Spencer West speaks to the students at Ecole Corinthia Park School in Leduc at the first stop on his marathon from Edmonton to Calgary to raise money to bring fresh water to third world countries. Students at Ecole Corinthia ...
Happy Fish Story Volunteers from Wizard Lake Stewardship attaching fish to the fence. A “Stream of Dreams”... The onset of spring’s warm weather melts the winter’s snow, creating streams of water draining from the fields and ditches ...
Palmer..Who? Stephen Palmer recently brought his folksy, one-man guitar extravaganza to St. Matthew's Lutheran Church in Thorsby for the 2013 Spring BBQ fundraiser. During the British Invasion of the '60s and '70s, Palmer's band opened ...
From Trails to Highways When the Hudson Bay Company gained a trading monopoly over all land and waterways within the Hudson Bay watershed in 1670 they set out to establish what was the extent of their holdings. To accomplish this feat they first ...
City with Heart The Youth Award of Merit was presented to Mr. Timurlane Cakmak at the 2012 Citizens Of Distinction Banquet. Upon receiving his award Timulane (center) drew a laugh from the crowd by throwing his arm around Mayor Krischke ...
Bath Time Who could resist those eyes! Charlie does not look thrilled about being in the tub for the CLASS fundraising Dog Wash at For Paws over the weekend but if he knew he was helping out other animals that are not being so well ...
Leduc Lions Donate To Community The Leduc Special Olympics organization were thrilled to receive a donation of $1,500.00 from the Lion's Club of Leduc. The Leduc Lion's Club recently gifted the Leduc Boy Scouts with a cheque for $4,000.00 to renovate their ...
Kids + Bikes = Safety If you have a small someone running around your home who is between the ages of 6 and 11 years old, and you are worried their new found freedom on two wheels might be a cause for concern as far as safety goes, then the ...
Flying High At EIA V.P. of Community Development at Edmonton International Airport, Myron Keehn, spoke of the ways that EIA has grown and contributes to the local economy and community. The May Chamber luncheon opened with the information ...
6000 Ladybugs on the Wall Berta Briggs, owner of ARBER GREENHOUSES talks about the 6,000 ladybugs being released that day... -Photo submitted Millet, AB – An icon of this vibrant little town since 1981, ARBER GREENHOUSES recently hosted a Ladybug ...
Wetaskiwin Co-op Returns 1.8 Million to Members On April 25 and 26 Wetaskiwin Co-op members were greeted with the first general cash repayment in many, many years. It started at 9 a.m. Thursday morning at the Wetaskiwin Co-op and concluded on Friday at 5 p.m. at the ...