THE best of the best in the firefighting stakes took over Tamworth on the weekend, as teams competed in the state championships.
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About 150 firefighters took on several challenges across the Gipps St fields during the two-day competition but it was the Kelso brigade that claimed the top honours.
On Sunday afternoon, Bega were declared the runners up, while the Tamworth brigade claimed fifth sport, and West Tamworth was below them.
“Greg Fredericks, the president of the Firefighting Champions Association billed the competition as a very successful championships,” Fire and Rescue NSW Superintendent Tom Cooper said.
“He commended the Tamworth brigades on a great event, it was a highly successful event.”
The championships boasted teams from as far away as Bega and Kelso, Mudgee, Wyong and the Central Coast, and there was also five Rural Fire Service (RFS) teams who competed against their retained firefighting counterparts as well as women’s team from Kootingal.
“The championships is all about sharpening their skills as firefighters, and to improve safety on the fireground and to develop better ways of doing things,” Superintendent Cooper said.
And it wasn’t all about the competition, Fire and Rescue NSW Commissioner Greg Mullins addressed the troops, along with Assistant Commissioner Rob McNeil who spoke on Saturday night to the crowd of 250 about his deployment to Japan following the deadly tsunami in 2011.
