On fire: Volunteer departments compete in their own firefighter games
By John Joyce
Published in News on September 14, 2015 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Firefighters with Nahunta Fire Department Aaron Driver, backup man, and Justin Edgerton, nozzle man, compete in the waterball event at the Wayne County Firefighter Challenge Saturday. Driver and Edgerton went undefeated in waterball.
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Daniel Martinez gets help from Stephanie Curtice during the hose relay competition. Points are deducted from teams if their gear is not fastened correctly. Martinez and Ms. Curtice are firefighters with Arrington Volunteer Fire Department.
It was a clean sweep for the Nahunta Volunteer Fire Department Saturday.
Members of several Wayne County volunteer fire departments faced off in a series of events at the firefighters' training grounds off Aviation Drive.
Nahunta took first place in all three events and also brought home trophies in the sportsmanship and overall best categories.
Arrington and Rosewood volunteer fire departments also participated, and Saulston and Belfast departments provided water and rehab services.
Kaye Howell, committee chairman of the Wayne County Firefighters Association, said the competition is an annual event, but it has declined in recent years. She and the association are hoping Saturday's turnout encourages more county departments to join in next year.
Competition got under way shortly after 9 a.m. with a firefighter challenge. Four-member teams competed in a series of timed challenges that tested their strength and endurance.
The challenge began with one firefighter shouldering a 50-foot hose into a building and up to the second floor.
"He then has to go around the building and back up a second flight of stairs on the outside of the building," Mrs. Howell explained. At the top of the stairs, a lift challenge waited for the firefighters. Once the weight at the end of the rope was hoisted up, it was on to the hose drag.
"He is then going to drag a charged hose 70 feet to the window. After he hits the target, he will drag it 40 more feet," she said.
The second drag of the charged hose gave fits to competitors each time. It was later discovered that a coupling joining the portions of the houses was catching on the turf, forcing the firefighters, in full turnout gear to lean forward and get nearly parallel to the ground to complete the challenge.
After the challenge came the hose relay. Three-member teams dragged and slung sections of hose, each one pitching their hose from the point where the prior hose stopped. Once connected, the first team member charged the hose and the other two members manned the nozzle knocking down two tennis balls from poles about 50 feet apart.
Competition wound down -- or up -- with the most anticipated event of the day, the water ball challenge. An empty propane tank strung up on a wire between two telephone polls 100 feet apart was the target. Competitors tried to slide the tank back and forth on the wire under dueling streams of water shot from hoses held by three-person teams on either side.
The teams switched sides after each point in a best of three tournament, during which the rain started and threatened to douse anyone not already getting soaked under the streams of the hoses.
Arrington came in third in the firefighter challenge and placed second in the hose relay. Team members D.J. Kidd and Daniel Martinez said the day was more about the brotherhood and the family environment than it was about the competition.
Kidd had to drag a life-sized dummy 50 feet in full turnout gear for his portion of the competition. Afterward, he was a bit winded.
"It was heavy, it sure was. But it was a lot of fun," he said.
Martinez, a first-time competitor, said the challenges were set up to be similar to things firefighter face in real-world scenarios.
"It's just like a training scenario," he said. "It is hard, but in a real event you have to push yourself."
The teams supported one another and cheered for each other the entire day. New firefighters mingled with those more experienced, and departments that do not often go out on calls with each other got to spend time with one another.
"It's like going to a family reunion. You see new faces. But when we go fight a fire with them, they know us," Martinez said.
Trophies and door prizes were handed out after the competition. Volunteers and Wayne Community College EMT training class members also got to participate in a raffle with the firefighters, so no one went home empty-handed.