Firefighters Compete In Tyler Relay

Four firefighters from the Van Volunteer Fire Department competed in the SCOTT Firefighter Combat Challenge Regional event held in Tyler on Saturday, September 26.

Bradley Brown, mark Hazelbaker, Linzy Neal and Jeff Hudgens formed a team that competed in the relay category.

The relay consists of a high rise hose carry, in which the competitor must carry a 42 pound hose pack up a four story tower.

Then he hands off to another team member who hoists a 42 pound hose roll up to the top deck by rope. A firefighter descends the tower where they next have to simulate chopping a roof by driving a 160 pound weight five feet with a nine pound sledgehammer.

After another hand off, a firefighter runs through a 140 foot slalom course and grabs a charged 1-3/4 inch hose which he advances seventy-five feet to a target. After striking the target, he hands off to the final leg, dragging a rescue manikin 100 feet to the finish line.

This event, which has in the past been broadcast on ESPN and Versus networks, has been dubbed "the toughest two minutes in sports" by some commentators.

Van was the only volunteer department competing in the relay event. The team posted a better time than teams from the fire departments of Palestine, Arlington, Lubbock, Desoto, Nacogdoches, Texarkana, and Fort Worth. They were eliminated from the brackets by the team from the US Army at Ft. Hood.

"We’ve only been practicing about six weeks," said Hudgens.

"Ft. Hood beat us by five seconds. Our goal this year was just to finish in under two minutes. Our next goal is to finish under 100 seconds," said Hudgens.

He said that had Van beaten the Ft. Hood team, their next race would have been against the Department of Defense team and current World Champions, SAM Squad.

"We’re going to shave our time down quite a bit as we practice between now and next year’s season which starts in the spring," said Brown.

Van’s time of one minute, fifty-three seconds qualified them to compete in the United States National Championship and World Championship in Las Vegas.