The 4th of May annually marks International Firefighters’ Day, and in commemoration of this year’s celebrations, the Overberg District Municipality successfully hosted the 2016 Firefighter Team Challenge.
This year, the BeSafe Expo, which is also an annual event that coincides with International Firefighter Day, was held during the same celebrations in Bredasdorp. The Expo is primarily a Western Cape initiative which allows members of the industry to attend pertinent seminars and workshops relating to risks within the province. Furthermore, the Expo allows the different provincial committees and workgroups to host meetings, create awareness around safety during for example, fires and car accidents, inform members on latest technological advances and showcase the abilities of individual municipalities in different disciplines.
The Eden District Municipality (Eden DM) Fire Services entered 3 teams into the Firefighter Team Challenge. As overall winner of the 2015 challenge, Eden DM received a special invitation in order to defend the title won last year. The challenge is a gruelling display of skill, strength, discipline and teamwork, whereby a team must accomplish a range of tasks in the quickest time, while displaying proper procedure and safety. A total of 16 teams, consisting of firefighters from various municipalities, Provincial and Emergency Services Department partook in this year’s proceedings.
Firefighters from Eden DM once again achieved first place in the challenge, with the other 2 teams coming in at 6th and 10th place respectively. The teams of City of Cape Town followed 2nd, and the Air Force in 3rd place.
During the event it became apparent that firefighters in the Western Cape Province trained exceptionally hard with the prospect of beating the Eden DM Team. The boys of Eden DM are named “Manne sonder longe” by their competitors and colleagues in the industry, and this is just a demonstration of the professional sportsmanship respect fireman have for the firefighters of Eden DM.
