At least one Cache Creek firefighter will be heading to the FireFit National Championship in September, after the team smashed their previous time and three members picked up medals at the regionals in Spruce Meadows in June.
Cache Creek Volunteer Fire Department Chief Tom Moe got a bronze in the men’s Over 55 category, while 1st Assistant Chief Al Wiens got a silver in the chief’s category. Alana Peters, the CCVFD’s 2nd Assistant Chief, brought home a gold in the women’s Over 40, bronze in the women’s overall category, and bronze in the chief’s category, which is a mixed event.
Along with CCVFD firefighter Adam Newman, the team placed fourth in the mixed relay category, and Peters said that they were all very excited about the team time.
“Our previous best was around 2.19. We did the relay three times [in Spruce Meadows], and our second time was 1.58, which was a significant improvement.”
READ MORE: Four Cache Creek firefighters heading to FireFit Championships
She says that there was a delay in announcing the dates of this year’s regional events, particularly in the west, which meant that a lot of people who would usually compete couldn’t manage it. The FireFit Championship was not held in 2020 or 2021 due to the pandemic, but Peters says that after competing in Kamloops in 2019, the Cache Creek team members managed to keep up their training.
“We all finished our races, and I’m very proud of us for doing that.”
Moe says that since 2019, when he, Peters, and Wiens competed, the team members have been meeting every Wednesday night for training. “Adam has been on board since he joined last year. He’s a little powerhouse. He did the dummy drag in all three runs the team did, and that was fine with me.”
The dummy drag is the final task in both the individual and team events, and involves a firefighter dragging a 175-pound dead weight dummy for 150 feet. Other tasks involve a run up a six-storey flight of stairs, with each participant carrying a 50-pound hose reel pack on their shoulder and then hauling a hose roll to the top via a rope; simulating forcing a door open with a sledgehammer; and running a slalom through fake hydrants, then grabbing a charged hose line and pulling it 70 feet to shoot at a target with the water.
Participants do all this in full turnout gear, which weighs more than 40 pounds. In the individual events, each competitor performs all the tasks while wearing a mask and on oxygen. For the team event, each person completes a different task and passes a “baton” to the next competitor when they’re done. While team participants are also wearing breathing apparatus, they are not on air or wearing masks, which both Peters and Moe say makes a huge difference.
“It’s a lot different doing tasks when you’re on air than when you’re not,” says Moe, who took part in the individual event for the first time. “When you’re on air you’re struggling to breathe. I thought [the individual event] would be fun to try, but it was a lot harder than I thought it would be.”
Peters had never done the individual event either, and found it very different from being part of a team.
“Halfway up the stairs [the first task] I thought ‘Oh man, I’m in trouble,’ but there was no way I was going to not finish. I’ll have to work on my aerobic capacity while on air very significantly over the summer. It’s such a hard challenge, and you want to make sure your body can do it.”
She says that the environment in Spruce Meadows was very supportive. “You’re competing against each other, but supporting each other. On the first night you can walk the course, and a firefighter from another department walked us through it and gave us tips. The whole team from the Edmonton fire department came over and helped us.
“While you’re on the course you can hear everyone cheering for you, and it pushes you. You don’t want to disappoint these people by giving up.”
Moe agrees that the support is amazing.
“The ones who do this and train full time are super fast, but they’re cheering us on, and it’s really great to have that support. They want to see us do well, and they’re giving us tips and tricks to cut down our times.”
Because of prior commitments on the weekend of the nationals, Peters will likely be the only CCVFD member taking part.
“There will be competitors from all over Canada and Europe there, so good on Alana for trying,” says Moe. “Maybe next year the dates will work out better. We’ll carry on and hopefully be stronger and faster next year, and a couple more people in the department want to try out as well.”
“I’m definitely competing in the individual event,” says Peters. “It was an amazing experience, and the most physically difficult thing I’ve ever done. Everyone who runs the individual event only does it once, so you have to give it your best. I thought it was odd that you only did it once, but when I finished, I got it. There was no way I could do that again.”
Moe says that he is proud of the entire Cache Creek team.
“We left our name there for sure, and came home with five medals. Everyone knew who we were when we left, which is pretty good for a small town department.”
editorial@accjournal.ca
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter