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Air Force firefighters take world title By CHairforce
Webmaster Hundreds of American and
Canadian firefighters converged on Las Vegas, Nev., Nov. 9-13 to compete in the
World Firefighter Combat Challenge. When the smoke settled, a
team of Air Force firefighters from Travis AFB, Calif., had captured first place
honors and bragging rights as the best team of firefighters in the world. The SAM Squadron -- made
up of firefighters from Goodfellow AFB, Texas -- placed a respectable fourth. According to the Scott
Firefighter Combat Challenge Web site, the event, which has been broadcast on
ESPN for more than a decade, encourages firefighter fitness and demonstrates the
rigor's a firefighting to the public. Wearing "full bunker
gear" and the Scott Air-Pak breathing apparatus, pairs of competitors
simulate the physical demands of real-life firefighting by performing a series
of five tasks, including climbing the 5-story tower, hoisting, chopping,
dragging hoses and rescuing a life-sized, 175 lb. "victim" as they
race against themselves, their opponent and the clock. Members of the Travis
Firefighter Challenge team included: Tech.
Sgt. Mike Melton, Staff Sgt. Harry Myers, Staff Sgt. Jelani Brooks, Staff Sgt.
Frank Abreu, Dave Chiodo, Shenah Flores, and Adam Groom. In individual men's
competition, Air Force firefighters took the number one and number three spots:
Eric Aker (SAM Squad) took first place, while Sergeant Melton (Travis) took
third. For those who paid
attention to the Firefighter Combat Challenge U.S. National Championships Oct.
23 and 24 in El Paso, Texas, the Travis team's world championship victory is a
sort of sweet revenge. During the nationals --
thanks to a single-elimination system -- the Travis team (recognized as one of
the best team in the world) placed an unfortunate eight place in the relay
competition. They were eliminated from the competition by the SAM Squad, which
was a mere 1/100th of a second faster than the Travis team. During the world
championship competition, Travis placed first and the SAM Squad placed fourth. |
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