Firefighter Challenge Produces Local Winners

A team from the Moose Jaw Fire Department earned the right to compete at the National Firefighters Combat Challenge in Niagara Falls, Ontario later this year.

The Moose Jaw team won the "Team Event" at this past weekend's "Casino Moose
Jaw Firefighters Combat Challenge" at Sidewalk Days 2006 in Moose Jaw.

The Challenge is a relay race of athletic tasks designed to measure the skill levels of firefighters. Events include climbing a 60 foot tower, dragging a 175 pound dummy, and other rigorous tasks firefighters face regularly, all while dressed in full firefighter gear.

The Moose Jaw event was a regional qualifier for teams from Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and the Northwest Territories.

The Moose Jaw team of Kayne Hemsing, Sterling MacDiarmid, Rob Halsall, Gord Hewitt and Chris Luiten finished 1st in the Team Event.

Also, Luiten earned the right as an individual to compete at the Nationals when his times proved to be the best in the Saskatchewan-Manitoba region.

North Vancouver's Trevor Morgan won the individual competition with Medicine Hat's Steve Seymoor finished 2nd and Fort MacMurray's Jeff Readman finished 3rd.

Winnipeg's Lindsay Ingram won the Female Individual category.