This week, a team from the Bellevue Volunteer Fire Department is putting their skills to the test at the World Firefighter Combat Challenge in Las Vegas. Follow the team’s progress and learn about their experience here!
The team qualified for the challenge based on results from the August challenge held at Oakview Mall. The world challenge encourages firefighter fitness and demonstrates the profession’s rigors. Participants race head-to-head in full gear performing simulated real-life firefighting activities including climbing a five story tower, hoisting, chopping and dragging hoses and rescuing a life-size 175-lb dummy.
MCC is proud to support the team and to have contributed to the education of several members (two members received their EMT education, one is a current Fire Science Technology students, and one is an adjunct faculty in the Fire Science Technology program).
it is finally over. Team Bellevue ran the 11th heat of the evening. They did well but lost to the team from Northern California that would eventually take 4th. Everyone was pleased with their performance. You couoldn't ask for a better season. A team from a volunteer department would qualify for the World Challenge and then make the final cut to the finals on Saturday night?! I know for sure that we were one of two volunteer departments that made the cut to Saturday night. In fact, alll of the teams from Nebraska faired very good.
The team is already looking forward to all the competitions next year and look to improve on their time. We refer to this challenge as the Toughest Two Minutes in Competion. If you have never experienced this, it is something to see, and I encourage each of you to come out and watch one of the events (most likely the one that will be held in Omaha next year) in which teams try and qualify for the World Finals.
The team would like to thank each and every sponsor that supported them and made the trip to Vegas possible. They would also like to thank, Stacey, Shelia and Kt from Metropolitan Community College for all of their assistance with this blog and their sponsorship. I have many other stories to share about the adventure in Vegas but will tell you them in person when we meet up. So until next year, keep encouraging the team to practice and prepare for next year!
Tuesday, Nov. 11
9:18 a.m. Las Vegas time
Well, we found Fremont Street. The weather is nice if you are from Nebraska: woke up this morning to a chilly 45 degrees. Chris Maddox is very nervous getting ready to compete in the individual competition. He will have to perform all tasks in the challenge by himself with no help from the other team members. Chris will be the 29th person to run today.
The relay team consists of Chris, Jason Schweitzer, Kenn Thompson, Kirk Schuster and Micah Laufenberg. We have seen people from New Zealand, Russia and Canada compete thus far.
10:10 a.m. Las Vegas time
Chris Maddox has officially ran the World Firefighter Combat Challenge course in Las Vegas. He did outstanding , he broke his personal best time! His time on course was a 2:02:3. I am told that this is currently the 4th fastest time for the day. There are approximately 50 more people to run the course behind him.
9:17 p.m. Las Vegas time
Wow what a day. The boys were outstanding. We saw records broken, outstanding performances, inspirational performances; you name it, it happened.
Bellevue spent most of the day with Offutt AFB Fire Department members and firefighters from Grand Island Fire. We also spent much of the day explaining to people that were watching the events where BELLEVUE is! We had to explain that it was in Nebraska not Washington and then had to put it into perspective that we are basically a suburb of Omaha. They couldn't believe that we would travel this far, let alone that they weren't paying attention to the announcer saying the next team up is from New Zealand.
Team Bellevue got their inspiration from Brandon Cunningham today. Brandon is the fastest competitor in the world in the last couple of years. Brandon is originally from Grand Island and is currently stationed at Fort Gordon. Today he ran in the tandems with a partner. They shattered the world record, posting a time of 1:12:00. You had to see it to believe it.
Team Bellevue would run in the last heat of the day as we waited on the arrival of Jason Schwietzer. This is another run you had to see to believe. These guys have shaved about 50 seconds of their original time when they ran the first time at the Omaha Challenge in August. They look like a fine tuned auto when they run now. We have changed positions up since the first competition in Omaha to make their runs smooth.
Chris Maddox is now the first one up the tower with the 42-lb hose pack. Kirk Schuster is sill doing the 42-lb hose pull up six flights of stairs and then passes the baton back to Maddox who runs down the six flights of stairs. Maddox then passes the baton off to me, who hammers the 160-lb beam of the Kieser Sled and then runs the obstacle course. I pass the baton off to Kenn Thompson who runs the hose pull and once through the salon doors, opens the nozzle and knocks a target down. Thompson then passes the baton off to Jason Schwietzer who picks up the 175-lb Rescue Randy and drags him 100 feet to the finish line.
As previously mentioned, Maddox ran his personal best today, and the team responded in the same manner, running a personal best with a time of 1:33:70 with a two second penalty (not intentional) for a early nozzle. Let me tell you, it was something to see. We know we can get to that 1:25:00 point and will hopefully do that in the next two days so we qualify for the finals this weekend.
Wednesday, Schwietzer will compete in the second day of individual competition and the rest of the team is trying to get into the second day of team competion. Currently we are only signed up for the third day of team competition.
I will try and keep you updated as quickly as possible but bear with me because we are two hours behind you. If possible email these guys and tell them how proud you are of them and to keep up the outstanding performances. Let me telll you there is not one of them that will disappoint you; they are representing you in the most professional manner possible.
Wednesday, Nov. 12
7:51 a.m. Las Vegas time
Another day has come, and it is beautiful out. I thought I would give the details of the night life for Team Bellevue. For the two days that we have been here, we're pretty boring. Monday night and Tuesday night we were so worn out that our night life consisted of getting a shower, riding the shuttle to dinner and back to the Orleans Hotel & Casino and going directly to bed. So much for partying like crazy people.
I have to tell you a quick story. We were all waiting for the shuttle to take us to the RIO for dinner. While standing in line, Chris Maddox and his wife Shannon struck up a conversation with a nice 85-year-old immigrant from France (has been here since 1957); this gal lives to play bingo. Well, by the time the shuttle got there and everyone boards, they end up seating Micah next to this French lady. The French lady looks a little uncomfortable at first so Maddox being the jokester that he is turns and tells the lady that Micah was just released from prison and he is on work release. Imagine what is going through this lady's head now!
I would have to say that the people of Las Vegas have been very polite and helpful. We are staying at the Orleans Casino (one of our sponsors), and they have been great to work with.
Everyone is off to the Challenge now, which is about 8-9 miles from where we are staying, to watch Jason compete and see if Team Bellevue can get signed up for another run in the relay. We also have three more supporters flying into today to support the team the rest of the week. I will keep you posted throughout the day as things take place.
10:19 p.m. Las Vegas time
Jason was able to run today, and he also had a personal best of 2:20:00. The rest of the team was unable to get into today's competition. Kenn spent the day studying like a good student for a paramedic exam that he has next week. The rest of us spent a couple of hours walking around the strip.
Thursday the team will be back at it competing again in the relay. The good news is after the run on Tuesday we were in the 22nd position, which at that point puts us in the finals on Saturday as they take the top 64 relay teams to the finals. That was on Tuesday; we may have been bumped lower after competition on Wednesday.
Not much else to speak of today. Everyone pretty much took in the sights and worked out; the walking in this city is a killer. I will try and stay on top of things on Thursday as they happen and hopefully get a few photos for you to see what the atmosphere is at the competition.
Thursday, Nov. 13
7:28 a.m. Las Vegas time
After reviewing the times and placings on firefighter.com I stand corrected: after Tuesday the team was in the 18th position (not 22nd as previoulsy posited) and after Wednesday's competition they were in the 48th position by time. This is good as it means we are currently in the field of 64 that will be taken to the finals on Saturday.
Today we hope to improve on our time. I did notice that Offutt AFB Fire ran again yesterday, and they also improved their time. Omaha had two relay teams that ran yesterday, and they also had good times that will carry them into Saturday.
Well, it is 0730 here and we are all up and rested and off to chow and then to the competition that starts at 0900. There is a ceremony this evening in which we will be entering our helmet in the competition. I will let you know the outcome of that as soon as I know. It is another sunny day so far with a expected high in the 70s. The weather is nice, but talk about dry air, everyone is suffering!
12:08 p.m. Las Vegas time
It is just about time for Jason and Chris to run in the tandems. They are currently getting ready to run. We are congregating with Offutt AFB Fire and Grand Island Fire sharing stories and getting everyone in the competive mode.
The weather is great; it is currently 73 degrees. So the weather will not be a factor. The crowd is great today with everyone cheering on all of the competitors. Omaha Fire has had several members run in the individaul compition, and they are doing very good. It seems all of the training that all of the Nebraska teams have done is paying off.
1:13 p.m. Las Vegas time
Jason and Chris just ran the tandems. They did a outstanding job: they broke their personal best with a time of 1:45! It was impressive to see them run and perform so well. The team now has to wait our turn to run in the relays. We are Run #834, and Jason and Chris were Run #760. So that means it'll be 2-3 hours to wait. See ya then!
9:53 p.m. Las Vegas time
After the team ran the competion today we all stuck around to cheer on Offutt AFB as they cheered us on. They were near the end in running order. They did fantastic and bettered their time from Tuesday. We then packed up our entourage and headed back to the hotel to clean up and then rush back to the Plaza Casino on Fremont Street to attend the Lion's Den Ceremony. It was at this ceremony that we would enter our helmet in the Hottest Helmet Contest and find out at the very end if Team Bellevue made the finals.
We had a light meal and listened to the induntees into the Lion's Den. Then came the announcement of who won the Hottest Helmet Contest. There were ten helmets in the competion and some very artistic designs. An individual out of Canado won with an air-brushed awesome dragon coming out of some flames. We came to find out our helmet received the second most votes.
OK, I'll get to what you are all waiting for. The big screen opened up and they posted the 64 relay teams that made the finals. The page came up, and low and behold, the crowd went wild when TEAM BELLEVUE and TEAM OFFUTT came up on the same page as making the finals. We were all seated in the same area and high five's were passed around.
So tomorrow the team has a scheduled practice time at 1130 for f5 minutes. We will take advantage of this time making sure everything is well oiled. The opening ceremonies we were told is something to see. The opening ceremony will consist of a parade of the finalist by state, Canada, Germany and New Zealand. Omaha, Bellevue and Offutt all have teams in the finals. Grand Island was close but fell short. The parade will be by state and will be much like the Olympics, as one member from each state willl carry the state flag. I will hopefully get a good picture of this a forward it to you all if possible.
Everyone associated with Team Bellevue -- sponsors, family , friends and BVFD -- should be proud of the team as they have been great ambassadors for Bellevue the entire time. Some are getting up each morning prior to the challenge and getting a workout in. The family and friends that have traveled to watch the team's progress have been a great support group. Each department from Nebraska can also be heard in the crowd yelling and encouraging each other while they are running the course. Hopefully we will continue to bring good news to the blog. The event will be taped over the next two days and later broadcasted on the Versus channel at a date and time to be announced.
Friday, Nov. 14
7:24 a.m. Las Vegas time
Good morning! Today''s schedule Nebraska Time is 1330 practice runs for 15 minutes on the course and 1800 opening ceremony on Fremont Street with the finals to follow. Team Bellevue will not compete until after 1800 on Saturday.
2:00 p.m. Las Vegas time
Practice went well. We decided to switch up some positions to try and improve time. I hope it pays off. Team Bellevue practiced along side Team Offutt as they both had a 1130 practice time, 1330 Nebraska time. Now it is back to the hotel to clean up. Some are going to the body exhibit at the Luxour. They are doing this prior to the opening ceremonies.
I do have to tell you that Elvis is alive, and he is living in Vegas. We actually saw him yesterday driving on I-15 in his pink caddy wearing his famous white outfit. Dana tried to get his picture but a semi got in her way.
6:21 p.m. Las Vegas time
Just got back from the opening ceremony; it was pretty cool. It started with the Las Vegas Fire Drum & Bugle Corp performing followed up by their Color Guard. The mayor, city manager, one coucilman and the fire chief welcomed everyone to Las Vegas. The finals then began.
All week the challenge has taken place under this huge canopy that covers Fremont Street for about two city blocks. Tonight under darkness we learned that the entire thing is a video screen. During the finals they project each athlete on the screen along with their bio. The screen is divided down the middle by the colors of the course, red course and blue course. It is really cool to see. Team Bellevue is relaxing at this time getting ready for our chance to run one final time on Saturday evening.
Saturday, Nov. 15
9:04 a.m. Las Vegas time
It is here: the final day of the competition. The team is probably still sleeping...OK they are probably eating! The team goal for the day is to get a sub-100 or, if possible, a sub-90. Maybe the position changes that made yesterday will pay off?
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