Firefighters to turn up the heat for challenge
The Winton Fire Brigade will have plenty of back up to call on when it hosts two competitions for firefighters in February.
Seventy firefighters from 10 Otago and Southland brigades have entered the Southern Challenge on February 16 and a similar number is expected for the South Island Fire Brigades’ Golf Tournament on February 20-22.
The challenge has six parts – stair climbing, reeling in a hose, running 40 metres, forced entry (breaking down a door) and dragging a hose and a dummy. Competitors are timed.
Winton deputy chief fire officer Guy Johnstone said the energy levels of competitors were tested fully.
‘‘It’s character building and at the end of it, you know where your fitness levels are,’’ he said.
The event was a good chance to network and socialise with other brigades, especially for the ones that backed each other up at emergencies, Johnstone added. ‘‘It’s a good time to catch up.’’ Johnstone and two other Winton firefighters in the challenge, Steve Turton and Chloe Milne, are also competing in the Firefighter Sky Tower Stair Challenge in Auckland on May 18.
Milne has been in the Winton brigade for 13 months, following in the footsteps of her father Stephen Milne, who is the chief fire officer.
‘‘Dad was in it [fire service] before I was born,’’ Chloe said.
She can remember as a school girl, Stephen leaving home at ‘‘random times’’ to attend call outs.
‘‘The siren would go off and away he went.’’
Chloe competed in the challenge last year but was unable to complete the last section, dragging the dummy.
‘‘It’s pretty tough . . . the dummy was 20 kilos heavier than me.’’
Meanwhile, 14 or 15 members of the Winton brigade will be bartenders at the Blair Vining Black Tie Evening at the Midlands Rugby Club grounds in Winton tonight.
They will be carrying their pagers and nine or 10 will leave if a call out is received.
Their private vehicles will be parked in an area where they can’t get blocked in by the expected large crowd.