By Melanie Jacob
Journal Editor
The Humboldt firefighters once again donned their suits and helmets this past Saturday for the annual fire fighter rodeo in Lanigan. They made full use of the day's events and learned a lot in a short amount of time.
"For us it went very well," said Graham Hall, the team's elected captain for the day. "Even though we never placed in any event, the exposure we got to the potential real life situation was invaluable."
The team this year consisted of three coaches and five team members. The coaches were Darcy Leonew, Matt Schidlowsky, and Craig Stomp. The teammates were Graham Hall, Jordan Dalsin, Braeden Campbell, Krista Prunkl, and Owen Wickenhauser. Both Prunkl and Wickenhauser participated for the first time and it was also Leonew's first time being a coach.
Every year, PotashCorp holds the rodeo to give their employees a chance to compete in simulated real life scenarios that challenge their firefighting skills. This year, they had participants from the Lanigan, Cory, Patience Lake, Allan, and Rocanville divisions. The company also regularly extends an invitation to both the Lanigan and Humboldt fire departments. In order to compete, both departments try to squeeze in extra practices prior to the event.
"The hardest thing was finding days that we could get everybody together," said Leonew, who's also captain of the Humboldt detachment. "They juggled their time and worked around their schedules to make it here for practices."
Leonew has been with the Humboldt fire department for over 30 years and has seen the struggles and changes firefighters dealt with in the last 14 years worth of rodeos. So far, he says it seems the scenarios just seem to get better. Keeping those experiences in mind, he said he jumped at the chance to be a coach at this year's competition.
"I asked them to do everything like they would on a normal call and they gave 110 per cent on every event," said Leonew. "This year it felt like everything went faster. Everyone was very close with the times. We didn't place in the top three, but I'm excited to see the final results because I'm sure there will be some fours in there."
According to Leonew, they had a fairly young group this year (two of the five members having never done the competition before), but they "gelled" really well. They had solid communication and sometimes practices together until 10 p.m. or 11 p.m. at night. Since they each had specific roles on the team, it was even more important that all five members were present so as to not drag down the rest of the team.
"They worked extra hard those nights, putting in extra hours of practice for this and training," said Darrell Wickenhauser, deputy fire chief in Humboldt. "It was as hard as we expected and we had a fairly young group, but that's the experience we wanted to give these guys."
The day's challenges include search and rescue, first aid, fire extinguishment, practical skills, a burst water hose, and water soccer. So far, most participants seemed to agree that first aid and search and rescue were the hardest.
"The first aid event is the most challenging because there are so many variables," said Hall. "That's always the one we're most worried about."
All the participants are locked up at the start of the day to make sure that none of them can communicate and share tips or tricks to succeed. During this time, Leonew could no longer help them and instead watched the other teams compete. Despite this, Leonew said that while he was watching the others, he was still confident.
"Every team I watched, I knew ours was going to be right in there and just as good," he said. "Events like the challenge relay came down to seconds, that's how close it was."
The challenge relay took place after lunch along with other fun events like the burst hose and water soccer. While it was mostly a chance for the participants to relax and have some fun, it still also served another purpose.
"It's really fun, but it also simulates a real possibility because it can and does happen," said Hall. "They're all things you would do in a real fire."
By the end of the day, Leonew said he, Wickenhauser, and fire chief Mike Kwasnica were extremely proud of their team's performance.
"It gets more exciting every year," said Leonew.
