A unique event and opportunity for area firefighters in Tecumseh.
On Saturday, June 3, local firefighters and firefighter students will participate in the Tecumseh F7 Festival where they will go head-to-head in their own Firefighter Combat Challenge.
The Firefighter Combat Challenge is a renowned competition comprised of multiple firefighting tasks and is a challenge taken on by firefighters around the world every year.
Tecumseh Fire and Rescue Services Combat Challenge team will be made up of firefighters Dan Redmond, John Moluchi, Patrick La Mascolo, Mike Long.
Redmond says they'll be competing against other firefighters from across Windsor-Essex.
The course is comprised of a five-story tower, where firefighters will go up the tower with full fire gear on as well as an air pack.
The events include carrying a 42 pound hose up six flights of stairs, hoisting a 42 pound hose roll up the tower, breaking down a door by hitting a 160 pound beam with a nine pound mallet, advancing a charged hose 140 feet and spraying a target, and finally, dragging a 175 pound mannequin backwards for 100 feet.
Competitors must complete all events within six minutes.
Redmond says the job that they do does require a lot of physical ability, so in order to get through the course it requires training.
"This has been a great way for us to kind of introduce the sport to a lot of the local fire departments because the volunteer departments don't really compete that often across Canada and the US. Like we've put a team together this year, Tecumseh Combat, which is competing across Canada and the US this year," he said.
La Mascolo says this is the 4th time they'll be competing in the event, which hasn't operated the last few years during the pandemic.
"The pandemic has put a full stop on this, but at the same time we've not stopped. We've always communicated with myself and Dan, along with fellow firefighters. We're very excited to host on June 3 and it's going to be an amazing event with a lot of competitors very excited to do so."
Redmond says this year will actually be the first time they've opened the competition up to departments from outside Windsor-Essex.
"There's a gentleman we met from Lansing, Michigan, we were in Indianapolis at an event a few weeks back where we met him. So he's going to make the trek over and come over and compete, and we do have some guys coming from down the 401. We're getting a lot of the college students involved too so it's pretty exciting to introduce the sport to them being so new to the industry," he said.
The event is taking place at Tecumseh Fire Station 2 on Walker Road, beginning at 11:00 a.m. and going until 4:00 p.m.
Classic Fire + Life Safety, the sponsors for the event, will have a team onsite with their tent to hand out free water to event participants and spectators.
- with files from AM800's Rob Hindi