Firefighter Combat Challenge returns to Montgomery
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) - The 3M Scott Firefighter Combat Challenge is coming back to the capital city.
Teams have been training for weeks and now the time has finally come. Firefighters from across the world are in Montgomery for the Scott Firefighter Combat Challenge.
“It’s a big impact on Montgomery. We are going to have firefighters from 9 or 10 different countries, maybe more. We’ve already got some here today. We were over at station 5 with New Zealand and Kuwait having a little practice session so it was a lot of fun. It goes Monday through Saturday the 21st through the 26th and Friday and Saturday are the big days for finals,” said Captain Jason Cupps of Montgomery Fire/Rescue.
With such fierce competition, training happens at least a month in advance.
“It’s pretty much every day. From weightlifting, I weight-lift every day,and then of course I do the course work probably three or four times a week, meal prepping, so it’s basically a lifestyle,” said Montgomery firefighter Jake Lanier.
Lanier also won the national title for fastest firefighter. This is his 7th year competing in the combat challenge.
The public is invited to watch the final round of the challenge on Saturday and have some fun without all the hard work.
“We’ll have inflatables for the kids, we’ll have a youth course where they can do a course kind of like what the firefighters are doing and also some fire truck rides. It’s 100 percent free for the public so come out and check it out. We’ll also have our top chef challenge going on where some of the local firefighters are cooking up some great stuff and putting it out for the judges so it’s a great day and it’s a lot of fun,” Cupps said.
The course, set up in downtown Montgomery will feature five parts that must be completed while wearing full gear. The five parts include: climbing a five-story tower, hoisting weights, chopping, dragging hoses and rescuing a life-size, 175 pound dummy.
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