Firefighters get fit for challenge
First-time team to test abilities in Alberta
Sarah Ladik
Northern News Services
Thursday, June 9, 2016
INUVIK
While working fires are no place for competition, training for them can have an element of fun and games.
Maryssa Comacho lifts a hose pack weighing slightly more than competition-regulation June 4 at the last training session before she and the team head off to a FireFit competition in Alberta. - Sarah Ladik/NNSL photos
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"It's just a good way to push ourselves as firefighters," said Weronika Murray.
"It gives us a goal that we can train towards, and made us all more capable firefighters."
The team of five members of the Inuvik Fire Department -- Murray, Maryssa Comacho, Nathan Charlton, Julian MacLean, and Brian Larman -- are headed to the Scott FireFit Championships in Spruce Meadows, Alta., this week to compete against the best departments in the southern Prairies region.
From there, if they do well, they have the chance to move on to nationals.
That will be an uphill battle, however. While larger departments in the south have the facilities to recreate the course participants must run, Inuvik's fire hall lacks some of the required amenities.
"Stairs have been the biggest problem," said Nathan Charlton jokingly June 2 at the last training session before the team departs.
"There's nothing tall enough here."
The course begins with racers picking up a hose and running it up six flights of stairs. From there, they have to hoist up another hose pack with a rope, and run back down. They then have to pound an 80-pound block with a nine-pound sledgehammer to move the block a given distance, before running with a charged hose, getting through a door, hitting a target with water, and dragging a 165-pound dummy 100 feet.
Also, participants have to do to all of this in full bunker gear and on air.
"I've been running up the two flights of stairs at the gym," said Murray.
"But it's six in competition."
The whole course, she said, is meant to mimic everything firefighters are required to do in a real emergency situation.
And just like on a real fire ground, Murray said there are no weight classes, meaning people of smaller stature have to train harder.
"It's a morale builder, and an opportunity to train outside the gym," said Fire Chief Jim Sawkins.
"This is more trade-specific."
He also noted that being involved in the competition for the first time is an exciting thing.
"If they do well, it opens up the door for other firefighters to jump on board," he said.
The team has been training for the better part of eight months, although Murray is realistic about their chances this first time out. She said in speaking to previous competitors, it's working on the proper course that helps teams strategize and shave off all-important seconds.
Still, even without a real course, the training is gruelling, with participants sweating and out of breath less than 20 minutes after they suited up.
"I'm a very competitive person," said Comacho.
"This is another way to test my limits and push myself as a part of the fire department."
