Firefighters unite to test their skills for summer

Date: 17 October 2008

The skills of firefighters around Canterbury and from the West Coast were put to the test between 16 and 18 October this year when they took part in the 2008 Firefighter Challenge. Around 300 people and nine rural fire authorities were involved in the event that had teams competing against each other to prove their worth as top class firefighters.

Karen Jackson from DOC team
Aoraki 1

The challenge, held in Raincliff this year, provides a vital opportunity for fire teams to prepare for the dry summer season, hone their abilities in a pressured environment and check equipment is in optimal condition before taking it into a live situation. It also plays a key role in maintaining strong multiagency coordination between rural fire authorities and their support agencies. I joined the teams on Thursday 16 to Friday 17 October, to see what the event was all about.

It seemed the organisers had enjoyed themselves putting together some imaginative and demanding tasks for those competing who were told to expect the unexpected. At Friday's 8 am briefing, Incident Controller, the Department of Conservation's (DOC) Bryan Jensen warned the crews;

"This will test you - there's no two ways about it."

Mike Cuddihy tries out the abseiling
task

The challenges included retrieval of a four-wheel drive vehicle expertly parked on its belly nose down in a ditch, by Colin Reese from Fire and Safety Training Ltd of Timaru. There was an opportunity for teams to refresh their farm skills in a sheep herding activity - protection of livestock can be an important job in the event of rural fires. Task marker, Christchurch City Council's Rodney Chambers, let me in on the secret to success;

"These sheep are particularly jumpy being perendales. Canny teams pick the occasions when the sheep are rested and quiet, such as first thing in the morning, before trying their hand at rounding them up."

And then there was a water-based activity, reminiscent of an episode from TV's Scrap Heap Challenge, with teams pulling a raft together from various items, before wading into the river and transporting gear downstream. This contact with water led crews onto the last task - didymo decontamination, which was not to be taken lightly given the new finds in the Cass River recently.

DOC Geraldine Team in the water-
based task

Two Christchurch teams took the top spots on Thursday with a winning team from DOC Canterbury Conservancy, Talk Nerdy, followed by Christchurch City Council's RFA 1 coming second.

Friday saw the arrival of DOC's Canterbury Conservator Mike Cuddihy along with the Chair of South Canterbury Rural Fire District, Timaru's Assistant Chief Fire Officer and representatives from the National Rural Fire Authority, among others.

As Conservator, Mike is Principal Rural Fire Officer for Canterbury Conservancy's public conservation land. He was, therefore, keen to try his own skills out and stay up to date with what's happening in the field.

Thursday's winners, Talk Nerdy from
Canterbury Conservancy, try their hand
at herding sheep

During the time I was there the event ran without a hitch and organisers expressed particular thanks to the five landowners who kindly allowed use of their land. Most importantly the three days highlighted a genuine camaraderie and team spirit between all involved which Rob Hands of South Canterbury Rural Fire Authority felt was a key goal of the challenge;

"No single fire agency can tackle some of the big vegetation fires we get in rural Canterbury. We need to support each other, pooling our resources. This exercise confirms that we can do this and do it well."