Why our firefighters are going stair crazy
SURF Coast firefighters will feel the burning in their leg muscles next Saturday as they climb 28 floors of the Crown Metropol Hotel, wearing 25kg of equipment, to raise funds for charity.
Seven operational fireys from the Torquay unit will take part in their Melbourne Firefighter Stair Climb debut with 500 of their colleagues from across the country.
The team, aged between 20 and 50, will be wearing full turnout gear and breathing apparatus to simulate the actions of a firefighter entering a burning high-rise building. The local crew have been doing three training sessions a week for five months, many of which consisted of running up and down flights of stairs in the Torquay region.
This year the event, run by the Firefighters Charity Fund, aims to raise $343,000 for the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute to help improve outcomes for a variety of childhood illnesses.
Since its inaugural event in 2014, the stair climb has raised almost $434,000 to aid burns and cancer research and treatment.
The winning time last year was three minutes 30 seconds.