There are tougher jobs around than being a firefighter, but not many that come to mind.  All weekend, there’s been a competition at the park near our house so I took a wander over to check it out.

Teams of men (and women) take part in relays that involve running up 5 flights of stairs, hauling up a coiled hose, running back down, moving a heavy weight with a sledgehammer, running a slalom course, precision hose work and finally dragging a life size dummy across the finish line.  All in about twice the time that it took me to type that out.

These people are in shape!  And they’re not all the young bucks that you would imagine.  A couple of guys in their 50’s were hauling ass through the course wearing 100 pounds of gear.

We see them hanging around the fire halls and shining the rigs but it’s important to remember what they do for a living.  They work hard and we should all be proud of their service.