Academy firefighters win world titles

  • Published
  • By John Van Winkle
  • Academy Public Affairs
LAS VEGAS --  LAS VEGAS -- Air Force Academy firefighters earned two world titles and two bronze medals at the World Firefighter Combat Challenge XXII, Oct. 22-27 in Las Vegas.

The firefighters, assigned to the 10th Civil Engineer Squadron, were the defending world champions in the over-40 team from the 2012 season.

This year, the firefighters won first place in the chiefs and open relay categories, and finished third-place in the over-40 relay and over-40 tandems.

The firefighter combat challenge is a timed course with events simulating many tasks a firefighter must accomplish while fighting fires.

"This course is a great test for firefighters at any level," said 10th CES Fire Chief Ken Helgerson. "The main point is that if you can complete this course, you will be very prepared for any structure fire."

Designed for maximum exertion in a minimal time, the course has firefighters carrying a hose up 5 stories, hauling another hose up those 5 stories via rope, moving a 160-pound slab of steel 5-feet with a 9-pound mallet, running 100 feet to grab a loaded fire hose, dragging the hose 75 feet to hit a basketball-sized target with a stream of water and finally, dragging a 175-pound dummy backward to the finish line.

The course is run against the clock, and miscues are penalized by adding several seconds to a firefighter's overall finishing time. The competition is so strenuous, each firefighter can only run the full course all-out once per day -- so firefighters must be at their personal peak of fitness to finish the course.

"This competition tests a firefighter's physical capability and their techniques in carrying heavy objects, hoisting equipment, forcing doors, dragging a hose and rescuing victims," Helgerson said.

10th CES firefighters have competed in the challenge for 12 of the last 13 years, growing into a global firefighting power with world titles in several categories for the past seven years.

Assembled for a team of veteran firefighters who battled the Waldo Canyon and Black Forest fires, the Academy's firefighter combat challenge team earned their first world title in 2013 when Pat Kraft crossed the finish line Saturday with a time of 1:38.84, almost 9 seconds above the second-place firefighter in the chiefs category, and the sixth-fastest time in his age group.

Versatility and course mastery paid off for the Academy in the over-40 tandem category. Many teams have firefighters who specialize in one or two events only, whereas Academy firefighters learn the ins-and-outs of every event on the course, and share techniques and tips to maximize their performance. One of those firefighter combat challenge masters is the Academy's Roy Dalton, who teamed with fellow firefighter Bobby Russell of Overland Park, Kansas, to win the over-40 tandem.

Dalton, who normally runs the 5-story tower to start the course, took the second half to demonstrate his speed on the serpentine course, hose drag and dummy drag to finish the duo's run with a time of 1:22.71, just 0.26 seconds above the second-place team.
Academy fire chief Ken Helgerson and Kraft also ran the over-40 tandem, finishing in third place, giving the Academy two of the three medals in this category. In the coed tandem category, the Academy's Bill Gates teamed up with Courtney Van Marter of the Westminster Fire Department in Denver.

The pair is world-class athletes in this event and have teamed-up many times to create a formidable tandem. Gates and Van Marter finished sixth overall in the co-ed tandems, and Gates finished seventh in the world overall, in the individual races.
The open relay team also competed strongly in their category, with a combined team of Kraft, Gates, Helgerson, Dalton and Ron Prettyman -- all Firefighter Combat Challenge veterans with numerous medals between them.

They made it to the semi-final round, before narrowly getting beat in the single-elimination tournament. The relay competition occurred the same day as the tandem races, so each Academy firefighter had run the course several times at that point.
Sequestration also played a role in this year's competition; the Academy team made the minimal number of appearances at regional competitions to qualify for the world competition and each firefighter paid for their own travel.

"This competition is a great preparation model for firefighters from any department," Helgerson said.