Tākaka Volunteer Fire Brigade entered the ring of fire on May 3 and 4 at the National Firefighter Challenge and achieved illuminating team and individual results.
The event, hosted in Wellington by the United Fire Brigades’ Association, is the most physically demanding on the challenge calendar, which also includes the Waterway, Road Crash, and the Drivers challenges.
Competitors race against each other and the clock in five taxing tasks in either individual or team categories, all while wearing full firefighting bunker gear and a breathing apparatus.
The tasks included scaling a six-storey tower with a length of 70mm flaked hose that weighs 19kg, hoisting a 70mm hose coil up six storeys, and dragging a life-sized dummy 30.5m.
The team, whose name, the Tākaka 39ers, derives from the station’s number, qualified for the national challenge at the South Island Firefighter Challenge in Invercargill in March.
Captain Kyle Gardiner says the 39ers included his father Neil Gardiner, Hanna Sproston, Grant Lawrence, and Upper Tākaka brigade’s Sam Goffriller.
The relay team extinguished the hopes of a RNZAF Whenuapai team, claiming the first prize by three seconds, with a time of one minute and 17 seconds.
Kyle says his father “jumped almost a metre in the air” with his hands raised when the team finished first.
“We got told we had won last year but then they placed us as second afterwards,” he says. “So we had to take that one on the chin and then, this year, it was quite the bittersweetness of finally winning.”
Kyle says Sam also placed third in the individual male and became the 60th New Zealander to become a “Lion Den” after completing the course in under one minute and 40 seconds, and together the pair placed third in the open tandem category.
The 39ers also placed third in the aggregate category, and Collingwood Volunteer Fire Brigade’s Pete Taylor and Sheree Peters placed third in the open co-ed tandem team category.
“We’re very overwhelmed and pleased with how much our training has paid off,” Kyle says. “The brigade has backed us, and we’ve had a very helping hand from [Fonterra Tākaka] letting us train in their tower, without that I'd say we would have certainly struggled.”
