Firefighters put their skills to the test at national competition in Sarnia

Lambton College fire student Sarah Davidson had a good opening day Wednesday at the national and world FireFit competition hosted by the school in Sarnia.

She was among the first group of a total of 250 firefighters and fire students from Canada, as well as the US, Poland and Germany, expected to compete through Sunday on the course set up on a college parking lot.

Billed as “the toughest two minutes in sports,” competitors race in full gear through a course designed to copy skills firefighters use on the job.

Davidson is part of Lambton College’s 21-member Firefit team made up of students at its fire school.

“It felt good today,” Davidson said after completing the course and shedding her bunker gear. “Everything felt strong, my legs, my arms, my breathing. Everything was lining up.”

Wearing full fire gear and breathing through air packs, competitors are timed carrying a bundle of fire hose up six flights to the top of the tower, then haul up a line tied to a roll of hose.

They then run back down, pound a weighted beam down a track with a mallet, run down the course around pylons, run back dragging a fully charged hose and hit a target with a stream of water, then drag a 75-kilogram (165- pound) mannequin roughly 30 meters to the finish line.

“My best before was 3:32 and I just got it down to 3:21,” Davidson said about her time Wednesday.

Qualifying continues through Friday from 11 am to 4 pm at the college with finals Saturday and Sunday. The public is invited to watch and admission is free. There are food trucks and children’s activities on the site.

Lambton College earned the right to hold the nationals after hosting several regional competitions in recent years.

This is Davidson’s first year competing in FireFit and she took part in four regional events before this year’s nationals.

“The whole thing hurts so much,” she said about being out on the course.

“You have to break through your mental barriers and just keeping pushing yourself as hard as you can,” she said.

“But when you’re done it’s such a good feeling.”

Davidson said she was enjoying talking with competitors at the event and appreciated how they cheer each other on.

“The atmosphere is so good,” she said. “Everyone’s pushing everyone to do their best.”

Shane Bettridge, one of the coaches of the Lambton team, said everything came together for Wednesday’s opening day of the competition.

The tower and course made the trip from an event in Windsor last weekend. “This parking lot was empty Monday” before they went to work setting things up, he said.

“Everybody likes the layout and I think it’s going to be a good five days,” Bettridge said.

“We knew it was a great spot,” said Dale McRoberts with FireFit. “I’m glad we came here.”

The first day had more than 100 competitors signed up, which is “way more than we normally get,” McRoberts said.

Poland came with “one of the top teams in the world,” he said.

Bart Janecke, with the Polish team which came with six competitors, said it includes members who are world and European champions.

“We try to do our best and we hope we come back with some medals from Canada,” he said.

It’s the team’s first competition in Canada, Janecke said.

Categories at the event include men’s and women’s open, rookie division, chief’s division and age categories of over 40, over 50 and over 60.

“I sounds like there might be an over 70 next year,” Bettridge said.

McRoberts said there were 11 regional events this year leading up to the nationals in Sarnia.

“We start in BC and work our way all the way to Summerside, PEI”

McRoberts, who was a firefighter in Vancouver, entered his first firefighter competition in 1993 and was involved in creating FireFit Canada.

There are two kinds of FireFit competitors, he said. “Those who do it once and say, ‘never again,’ and those who say, ‘I know I can do better.’”

The nationals are a full slate of those who want to do better, McRoberts said.

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