RCFD set to compete in world competition

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KELO) –Firefighters train year-round to better take care of their communities.

A group of Rapid City firefighters, known as the Challenge Team, also trains for a world competition.

Beginning Monday, five Rapid City firefighters will be representing South Dakota on a international stage.

“This is just another stepping stone for me to just get my competitive nature out. A lot of the people on the team are the exact same way so they played sports growing up. Just a way for us to compete, get out there and just enjoy working together as a team. But it’s also an individual deal, so being able to push ourselves hard,” RCFD Firefighter and Team Lead Danny Sandvig said.

The Challenge Team also said that this training tower that they now have in Rapid City, helps them better simulate some of the competitions they are going to run into in Nashville.

The events all translate to work done everyday on the job as a firefighter.

“There’s good applications for being in scenarios where maybe you do have to pick up a fellow firefighter that went down. So the dummy drag is very similar to that. The Keiser sled is very similar to a forcible entry, just using those same big muscles, trying to get through whatever barriers you have,” RCFD Firefighter Advanced EMT Morgan Helton said.

“Within that physical fitness test it was going upstairs with a 45-pound pack, similar to what we’d have to do on a fire scene. We have to go to a high rise and bring tools with us, any kind of amount of weight. Then if we get up on top of the roof we’ve got to carry equipment all the way up to a roof per say, maybe even on a rope,” Sandvig said.

Close to 20 different countries will compete.

The RCFD will be posting updates throughout next week if you are interested in following along as the Challenge Team competes.

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