If at first you don’t succeed, spend a year at the gym and try again.
It worked. This year, he edged out three other firefighters, including Chief Fire Office Zebalon McLean, to take first place in the contest, which was held as part of Fire Safety Awareness Week.
The competition required participants to dress quickly in a firefighting suit and strap on a breathing apparatus before proceeding to other challenges, including crawling through a pipe, pulling a sledge, and using a rope to pull a 10-gallon bucket of water up to the top of a tower.
“The objective is to not only demonstrate the condition of the fellows but to give the public an appreciation of what we do and how we do it,” Mr. McLean said after he completed the course. “Everything here is based on something we do on the job. But this is also to help the firefighters challenge themselves.”
Competing in the event means staying very fit, Mr. Thomas said.
“I think the fact that I worked out every day for a whole year helped me today,” he said. “Mr. McLean works out, but I have youth as an advantage over him.”
Lessons
Stamina aside, the competition also teaches important life lessons, the competitors explained.
“Never give up: Pull through it,” Mr. Thomas said. “I almost backed out at the sledge pull, but I kept it together.”
Richard Penn agreed.
“It was challenging, but it’s all a mind thing,” said Mr. Penn, who has taken part in the competition each year since he joined the service three years ago. “You keep your mind strong and you’ll make it.”
While he competed, the crowd cheered loudly and he also clapped for himself as he pulled a sledge loaded down with four 10-gallon containers of water.
“I was glad the crowd clapped along with me,” he said. “That gave me a push to keep going.”
Still, he added, he could have done better.
“I think I did poorly,” he added. “You have to keep a good pace during this competition, and I was just thinking about not wasting all my energy.”
All told, Mr. McLean said, all the contestants proved that they were in good physical condition — as they have to be in order to do their job.
“The ideal condition for a fire officer is for him to have weight — say, close to 160 to 170 pounds — and for him to have enough strength to push and pull between 300 and 400 pounds and to be able to run a mile in 10 minutes,” Mr. McLean said.
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