Proud Ala. Firefighters Deemed 'Most Fit' in World

The Montgomery Fire/Rescue Department chased its dream for five years.

A dream that would hoist the firefighters to the highest honors as a winning relay at the Firefighter Combat Challenge World Challenge. A dream they would spend months training for — hours, each workout. All for 67 seconds of competition. All for redemption, and all for a five-man team being the strongest, the fastest and the most fit.

And they did this when they were named the 2014 World Champions after recently winning the Firefighter Combat Challenge World Challenge XXIII Phoenix, and breaking a world record in the process. Montgomery's firefighters joined the competition in 2010.

"We are firefighters from the beginning, whether we have one year in the fire department or 20 years," said District Fire Chief Jonathan Stuart. "We have the background. It helps because we have the heart, the job here, the career here, and it's like icing on the cake for us to go out and produce the best team for the fire department."

The challenge

The challenge annually attracts hundreds of U.S. and Canadian municipal fire departments at more than 25 locations and has recently expanded to countries around the world, including New Zealand, Germany, Argentina, Chile and South Africa, according to firefighterchallenge.com.

The challenge, which promotes fitness and highlights readiness and skills that firefighters must have to do their jobs, seeks to encourage firefighter fitness and demonstrate the profession's rigors to the public.

Wearing "full bunker gear" and the Scott 5.5 Air-Pak breathing apparatus, pairs of competitors race head-to-head as they simulate the physical demands of real-life firefighting by performing a linked series of five tasks including climbing a five-story tower, hoisting, chopping, dragging hoses and rescuing a life-sized, 175-pound "victim" as they race against themselves, their opponent and the clock.

At the world championships in November, the five-man Montgomery relay team set a world record of 1:07.22, bettering the 2010 record of 1:07.74. Tenths of a second depend on quick turns, handoffs, how fast a dummy is picked up.

Team members who brought home the gold from Phoenix — Jonathon Stuart, Denver Thompson, Jake Lanier, Reed Dutton, Christian Dealba, Harry Brown and Lee Julian — know this.

The road to the world competition started when Montgomery Fire/Rescue claimed top honors at the regional Combat Challenge hosted by Montgomery in mid-October. The team then won the Nationals in Tyler, Texas. In winning the World Challenge, Montgomery Fire/Rescue defeated teams from throughout the United States and from New Zealand, Brazil, Poland, Canada, Germany, Slovenia and Portugal.

Because of the local team's world title, next year's world championship will be held in Montgomery.

Training, pressure

At the 2013 world competition, the Montgomery relay team was favored to win. A couple of missteps took that away, so the team fought back, trained even harder and arrived in Phoenix ready for redemption.

"Last year in Las Vegas, there was one misstep going up the tower," said Brown. "One misstep pulling up the hose. And ... there was a trickle-down effect. It hurt real bad. We had a lot of pressure."

This year, the team arrived in Phoenix a week before the competition to let their nerves calm.

"We trained pretty hard this year knowing we slipped up last year," Lanier said. "We wanted to train harder. We weight-trained as well. We try to train together, but sometimes we couldn't because of different shifts and our off-day jobs. You have to do it whenever you can."

Relay members trained at their training grounds on North Court Street. Tryouts for the combat challenge competition — which includes a five-person relay and open tandem competitions — for the Montgomery team are in January. Then training starts up to three days a week, two to three hours each day.

"It's hard to come down here and train and stay in shape," Dutton said. "That's the hardest part of it. The competitions are actually fun."

But getting there means workouts consisting of running stairs and carrying a lot of weight.

"A lot of what we do, we're going to have a lot of weight on us ... at least 40 pounds," Thompson said. "So we add weight to our body. We have our gear — pants, boots, jacket and a pack on the back. All, about 40 pounds. And when we're running up the tower, we're carrying another 45 pounds with us on our shoulder. And we do it multiple times.

"It's a lot of anaerobic training. It's fast, and intense."

But it doesn't happen overnight.

"It takes time to build up to being in shape," Brown said. "It's dedication, and sticking with it. It's about putting the hard work into it. Put as much effort into it as you want out of it."

All the men on the team have been a part of the team for between two and five years, and all are mostly in their 20s and 30s. As reigning champions, the relay members are exempt from tryouts, but still fighting for positions. There's the "A" team. And one loosely called the "A-" team.

In each of the past five years, of the 450 people in the department, about 20 men have tried out for the team. And until this year, no women. This January, one is expected. And having seen them at other competitions, the men know their strengths.

"The dummies are what get a lot of the women," Dutton said. "Because ... it weighs 175 pounds, and it's more than what most women weigh. And you have women out there doing this (solo) in two minutes, 2:15."

Recovery, teamwork

One of the smartest aspects of training is not only the work put in, but the recovery time after. Brown stresses that as much time as they spend training, they try to spend as much time recovering and taking care of their bodies.

"Even after a hard workout, you want to stretch, rehydrate your body as much as possible," he said. "Get a healthy meal in and get some rest. Rest. That's the best recovery right there."

While recovery keeps them injury free, it is their teamwork that keeps them together.

"We're a true team from one department," Dutton said. "A lot of people were wanting us to win because of that. It's rare to find that many people from the same department who actually enjoy it."

For more information

To learn more about the challenge, visit www.firefighterchallenge.com.

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