Area firefighters advance to national competition

Firefighters Jason Kirschbaum, Scott Berends, Andy Van Schepen and Todd Krukow, pictured from left, proudly display the banner declaring them as championship finalists in the Scott Firefighter Combat Challenge. The four competed and qualified in a "Rumble in the Rockies" relay event this past weekend at the U.S. Air Force Academy base in Colorado Springs, Colo. (Photo submitted)

Four area volunteer firefighters are physically fit and now have the championship finalist banner to prove it.

Todd Krukow, Scott Berends, Jason Kirschbaum and Andy Van Schepen, who competed as the Okoboji/Heiman relay team, were among the firefighters who competed at the Scott Firefighter Combat Challenge, held June 26-27, at the U.S. Air Force Academy base in Colorado Springs, Colo.

The challenge, which attracts hundreds of municipal fire departments at more than 25 locations annually, seeks to encourage firefighter fitness, as well as demonstrate the profession's rigors. Wearing full bunker gear and breathing apparatuses, competitors simulated the physical demands of real-life firefighting by performing a series of five tasks including climbing a five-story tower, hoisting, chopping, dragging hoses and rescuing a 175-pound "victim" as they raced against the clock.

Teammates Berends, who volunteers with the Spencer Fire Department, Krukow, a volunteer for the Dickens, Arnolds Park and Okoboji departments, Kirschbaum and Van Schepen, who volunteer with the Arnolds Park and Okoboji Fire departments, were among those who competed in Friday's individual events.

Krukow and Kirschbaum, who placed first in the Everly firefighter games a few years in a row and were in turn prompted to pursue a larger physical challenge, became hooked on this particular firefighting competition when they vied in the tandem event last year in Omaha. They recruited Berends and Van Schepen to compete with them this past weekend.

While Krukow and Kirschbaum finished 19th of 25 teams, Berends and Van Schepen finished 22nd of 25 teams participating in Saturday's tandem event. The four men also collaborated Saturday afternoon in the team relay event, where they qualified for the upcoming national competition in Las Vegas.

This weekend's "Rumble in the Rockies" competition marked the highest elevation for a firefighter combat challenge to date.

"Seventy-two hundred feet was a real butt kicker," Krukow said of the event's altitude.

For the area team's five-event relay competition, Krukow carried a 42-pound pack up a five-story tower in the first event. Next, Kirschbaum hoisted a 42-pound roll of hose to the tower's top platform with a seven-pound kernmantle rope. In the relay's third event, Van Schepen simulated a forcible entry by driving a 160-pound sled with a nine-pound shot mallet. Berends, who completed the fourth event with fire hose in tow, negotiated a 140-foot slalom course without missing or knocking over any delineators, hitting a target with the water stream, shutting down the nozzle and then placing it on the pavement. Finally, Kirschbaum rescued a 175-pound mannequin by dragging it backwards 100 feet to safety. The Clay and Dickinson County volunteer firefighters finished Saturday's relay event in 1 minute, 47 seconds.

Area volunteer firefighters Jason Kirschbaum, Andy Van Schepen, Scott Berends and Todd Krukow, from left, are shown just after completing a series of five relay tasks and qualifying to participate in the Nov. 16-20 grand national championships in Las Vegas. (Photo submitted)

The four men began training for the weekend competition five months ago. While Krukow and Berends, both of Spencer, worked out from 5 - 6:30 a.m. five days a week at Anytime Fitness and then ran bleachers in the evenings, all four men have made it a point to meet two or three times a week to simulate the full relay event in full gear. Their training sessions have also included running a mile in full gear, pulling one another across the Spencer football field and flipping tractor tires.

Krukow reported they were among the few volunteer firefighters participating in this weekend's competition. Volunteers from Hawarden Fire and Rescue, who marked their first time participating in a national firefighter combat challenge, also qualified for the Nov. 16-20 national championships, which will be held on the downtown Las Vegas strip.

Berends, Krukow, Kirschbaum and Van Schepen, meanwhile, are already planning to attend additional challenges Sept. 4-5 in St. Louis and Oct. 24-25 in Omaha, where they hope to qualify in individual and tandem events. The four volunteer firefighters are also searching for new sponsorships to assist with registration fees and associated costs.