The 2024 West Regional Classic Firefighter Challenge got underway on Thursday.
If you're unfamiliar with the event, it's a chance for firefighters to come together and compete, showing off their emergency firefighting skills to the community. For the event, they built a massive course with a series of challenges for the firefighters to conquer.
Back in 1978, Dr. Paul Davis did research with the Maryland Institute of Fire to better understand firefighter fatigue, what they go through and the strain that is put on their body. These tests eventually turned into a fun competition that's now worldwide.
They start the challenges in full firefighting gear from head to toe, everything they would wear in an emergency fire situation.
They begin at the bottom of a tower with a 42-pound hose that goes over their shoulder, then they climb four stories to the top of the tower where they then have to haul the hose all the way to the top of the tower.
But it doesn't end there.
Jacqueline Belluomini, the Captain with Las Vegas Fire and Rescue tells us the next steps in the challenge.
“Once we come off, we come over here to the forcible entry," she said. "It’s a 160-pound slug that we hit with a nine-pound mallet. We’ve got to move it six feet behind us and after that we take off and run 75 feet around delineators to grab a charged hose line, bring it all the way back down to hit a target with the nozzle.”
To end the challenge, they pick up a 175-pound dummy and drag it 106 feet to finish the race.
Clearly this is a ton of work to finish the race. But everyone participating wants to prove they are the best of the best at firefighting, and these are just a few skills to show the community what they can do, but in a fun way.
As for how strenuous the race is? Captain Belluomini explains “You hate yourself in the first five seconds. You've hit that complete exhaustion within five seconds before you even make your first turn, and then you just have to go all the way up there. You have a job to do so you are literally fighting yourself, fighting the fatigue, fighting the voices in your head that are telling you you’re tired, just trying to push through every point that your body naturally wants to take a rest and take a break. You have to push that aside and push yourself harder.”
Firefighters from all over the country participate in this competition.
They say this is the type of competition where the firefighter brotherhood kicks in and everyone starts helping one another.
Captain Belluomini tells us about some of the preparation before the race.
“The night before, when we have our open practice, when we’re warming up before, the older guys who have been doing this for a while, if someone is struggling with a skill, we will help each other. 'Hey try this, this might work a little better for you. Check your feet on this. Put your hands here. Try this technique when you lift,'" she said.
The Captain says she's even seen some firefighters forget some of their gear and other firefighters will share their own to help them finish the race.
She say's this race is a huge bonding moment for all the firefighters, and they often stay in touch after the competition because lifelong friendships are built during the event.
Even though it's a competition, the firefighters say it's also a great way for the community to watch them in action.
“This gives everyone a chance to come out and see what we do," said Captain Belluomini. "I mean, we are going up the stairs. We are pulling hose up, we are trying to break doors down, and if we have to drag somebody out, absolutely this is what we have to do. Picking up guys that are bigger than we are. Everything on this course weighs more than me but you still have to be able to do it.”
Captain Belluomini also tells us what it's like being a woman in firefighting. She says it's an industry where you have to prove yourself, but both the men and women are very supportive of one another.
“When you're out here doing it everyone wants you to do well, she said. "So being able to train and do these things actually made me better at my job, and gave me the confidence to do my job and made me able to finish and do... so they don’t think when I walk in to the station, they don’t think 'oh, we have a female in here.' No, we just have another fireman.”
She tells us the competition is all about the firefighters getting out there, doing their best and having fun with it.
