2002 Junior Firefighter Challenge

On August 25th of 2002, the second Junior Firefighter Challenge was held in conjunction with the Independent Grocers Association (IGA) Hometown Wheels Family Fun Festival at the Farmington Polo Grounds in Farmington, Connecticut. The Junior Fire Challenge was a competition open to junior and explorer fire and EMS programs from around the state. The Challenge consisted of ten timed events which tested skills in firefighting such as properly carrying and deploying ground ladders. Some of the events were more fun than a test of essential skills, such as the Midnight Alarm which simulated firefighters jumping from their beds and into their gear to respond to a fire. In all events, teamwork would naturally be essential.

Awards were given to the team in each event who completed the evolution in the fastest elapsed time. Time penalties could be given for infractions. The team who turned in the fastest combined time for all ten events would be awarded a Best All-Around award for their accomplishment.


	The 2002 Junior Firefighter Challenge Team

The Junior Firefighters from the Simsbury Volunteer Fire Company had won the inaugural competition the year before and were excited about defending their championship, as illustrated by team growing from four participating Juniors in the first year, to eleven in 2002. Mike McDonald was the only returning member to the team and served as it's captain. Practices were held on Wednesday evenings and Sunday afternoons to prepare for the many individual events.

The first event for the team would once again be the Charged Hose Line Drag, where a three-member team would drag a charged hose line seventy-five feet to a mark, and then knock a cone down with the fire stream.


Greg Maine (near) and Joe Ryan perform two-rescuer CPR.

The second event for Simsbury was Team Search where the three competitors were blindfolded and required to find a victim. While stretching out on the ground and staying in constant physical contact with each other, the team searched for and navigated to several waypoints on their way to finding the victim.

In the third event, Greg Maine, Steve Hess and Joe Ryan had to properly perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation on a rescue manikin.


	After placing the ladder in the correct location, Juniors raise and extend it, and then retrieve the flags.

Ground Ladder Deployment was the fourth event for the team. A four-member team was required to advance a 24' extension ladder to the proper location, then raise, extend and lay it against a prop. Two members were then required to individually climb the ladder and retrieve flags from the prop.


Shuttling water the old-fashioned way: by hand.

The fifth and sixth events were less skills oriented and more fun. The Bucket Brigade required the five participants to fill buckets at a water source and carry them to a barrel and fill it. In the Splint-Legged Race, two team mates had their legs splinted together for a timed race to the finish line.

Kellan Boudreau, David Lagan, Joel Lagan and Mindy Mathiason competed in the Midnight Alarm. This event simulates how firefighters must sometimes jump from their beds and into their gear to answer an alarm. Participants sprang from their cots, put on their boots, coats and helmets, and than ran to an apparatus where they seated and belted themselves to end the evolution.


	Members of the Stretcher Relay team cross the ladder bridge.

The Stretcher Relay required a six-member team to advance a Stokes Basket containing a victim through a course with several barriers. With the victim's safety in mind, the team had to navigate the basket over a ladder bridge, and through a window and tube.


Team mates in the Hose Maze Crawl stay in constant physical contact with other, even while navigating obstacles.

The ninth event was the Hose Maze Crawl where a team of three Juniors had to successfully follow a charged hose line in the correct direction while blindfolded. The evolution started with the placing of the team at a coupling in the hose line. They had to feel the coupling and determine the proper direction in which to travel, and along the way, navigate several obstacles in the process to reach the end.

The final station in the Challenge was Knot Tying. Joel Lagan and Mindy Mathiason had to select and tie the appropriate knots for successfully hoisting a pick-head axe, a 6' pike pole, a 16' roof ladder, a 1¾ charged hose line, and a 1¾ uncharged hose line.

The Junior Challenge team from Simsbury was awarded first place in three of the individual events. It only took 1:18 for the ground ladder team to successfully place the ladder and retrieve the flags. The Midnight Alarm squad incredibly required only sixty-two seconds to properly don their gear and seat themselves in the apparatus, thus winning the event. Simsbury also finished first in the Knot Tying event, even with the addition of a forty-five second penalty for a knot that slipped while hoisting a tool.


	Simsbury's Junior Firefighters accept the Best All-Around trophy.

These times along with strong efforts in the other events pushed the Junior Firefighters from the Simsbury Volunteer Fire Company ahead of the competition, giving them their second-consecutive Best All-Around Award in the Junior Firefighter Challenge.

Once again the Simsbury Volunteer Fire Company Family Picnic happened to be held on the same Sunday afternoon as the Challenge, and once again the Junior Firefighter team walked-in to a resounding round of applause. Congratulations to all the members of the team for winning the 2002 Junior Firefighter Challenge.


Ground Ladder Deployment Event Winners (L to R) Captain Mike McDonald, Joe Ryan, Jeff Cady & David Lagan			Midnight Alarm Event Winners (L to R) Kellan Boudreau, Mindy Mathiason, Joel Lagan & David Lagan