Northland firefighters will be competing against their counterparts from across the country in the North Island Firefighter Challenge. Photo / United Fire Brigades' Association
Northland firefighters will be competing against their counterparts from across the country in the North Island Firefighter Challenge. Photo / United Fire Brigades' Association
Over 120 firefighters from around the North Island, including Northland’s very own, will be suiting up to compete in the annual United Fire Brigades’ Association (UFBA) North Island Firefighter Challenge.
The event is being held today and tomorrow at Aotea Square.
Competing is a prerequisite for those firefighters wanting to compete in the UFBA National Firefighter Challenge to be held in Wellington during May.
The Firefighter Challenge is a race designed to replicate the very real situations firefighters encounter in their duties – testing their endurance, strength and accuracy.
It starts with a climb up a six-storey tower carrying a 19kg flaked hose. Once at the top, the firefighters use a rope to hoist up a doughnut-shaped 70mm hose, before descending the stairs.
Third, the firefighters use a 4kg shot hammer to drive a beam 1.5 metres.
Competitors next negotiate a course and burst through saloon doors to hit a target with a charged hose, before finally dragging an 80kg mannequin over 30 metres to the finish line.
The fastest competitors can complete the gruelling course in under two minutes.
The firefighters wear full personal protection equipment – including helmet, jacket, pants, gloves and boots – and a breathing apparatus, all of which weigh roughly 25kg.
One of the challenges in the North Island Firefighter Challenge that firefighters will be competing in this week
Firefighters can compete as individuals, in tandem, completing half the course each, or as a relay team of four or five people.
For the individual event, the competitors are required to use the breathing apparatus.
The event is an opportunity for firefighters to test their expert, life-saving skills, so that when the siren calls, they can respond confidently.
Many of the firefighters involved build and train towards the event year-round.
“From the end of one event, they are training, training, training. They are really passionate people,” says Julia Costa from UFBA.
The UFBA runs the event on behalf of Fire and Emergency New Zealand.
“The volunteer workforce in Fire and Emergency is 85 per cent. The volunteers who come along to this event not only have fulltime jobs, but they are also serving their communities as a firefighter.”
Paid firefighters are also part of UFBA, as well as those firefighters protecting rural, urban, defence and industrial (such as airports) areas.
“We encourage engagement. We would love for people to come along and watch to support our firefighters who do so much for us and our communities,” Costa said.
New Zealand is protected by about 14,000 paid and volunteer firefighters. Their duties in recent times have extended to rescuing people from houses, extracting flood waters from properties and providing a haven for their communities.
