The World Rescue Wales and Out of the Blue events in Cardiff last week have been hailed a huge success by everyone involved. Last Thursday, Friday and Saturday Cardiff International Arena was the venue for the World Rescue Challenges and the UK’s Fittest Firefighter Challenge. Hundreds of Firefighters from all over the world descended upon Cardiff to compete, including the world renowned and South Wales’ finest, Bridgend extrication team. The event consisted of three different categories of road traffic collision scenarios which each of the 30 teams would tackle (one per day). Overall winners, Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service were crowned as World Extrication Champions for the second time at the awards ceremony in Cardiff City Hall on Saturday night. The South Wales team did exceptionally well winning the standard 20 minute scenario and claiming fourth place overall. From the 30 teams involved, Station Manager Shaun Moody (New Inn Fire Station) came second in the Incident Commander category and the team’s medics and technical members secured fourth place overall in the world. The UK’s Fittest Firefighter Challenge attracted a very excited crowd, cheering on two Firefighters at a time who took on five excruciating Firefighter tasks in full fire kit lasting around two minutes each time. Firefighter Sam Harding from Monmouth Fire Station came second out of 66 competitors completing the course in 98.22 seconds. Barry Firefighter Tristan Bowen came fourth overall and won his age group (30-39). Firefighter Jane Denman based at Merthyr Fire Station was the only female competitor in the competition and completed the course with ease. Event Organiser, Area Manager Steve Martin said “We are all extremely proud of World Rescue Wales and feel it was a massive success. All the teams and competitors thoroughly enjoyed their experiences at Cardiff International Arena and in Cardiff itself, some calling it the best one ever! We’re also extremely pleased with our own team’s performance, proving that the skills in South Wales are world class.” “We presented the Ghanaian team with a special award for the team that best captured the spirit of World Rescue Wales at our awards ceremony and the Hungarian team also received a special award the best performance from a new country in the competition.” The Out of the Blue event at Bute Park on Saturday attracted around five thousand members of the public who enjoyed exciting and interactive displays from the Emergency Services and other organisations. On Friday around four and a half thousand school children attended the event and, even through the mud had a fantastic day out.
1st Hampshire F&RS, England, UK 2nd Royal Berkshire, England, UK 3rd Crescent Link, Northern Ireland, UK 4th Bridgend South Wales F&RS, Wales, UK 5th Palm Harbor, USA 6th London FB, UK 7th Consorcio de Valencia, Spain 8th Luxemburg, Luxemburg 9th County Carlow, Republic of Ireland 10th Wesfarmers Curragh, Australia
Complex
1st Crescent Link, Northern Ireland, UK 2nd Region de Murcia, Spain 3rd TRT Osnabrueck, Germany 4th Hampshire F&RS, England, UK 5th Royal Berks A, England, UK 6th Consorcio de Valencia, Spain 7th Wesfarmers Curragh, Australia 8th Bridgend South Wales F&RS, Wales, UK 9th Bomberos De Toledo, Spain 10th Bomberos de Barcelona, Spain
Standard
1st Bridgend South Wales F&RS, Wales, UK 2nd County Carlow, Republic of Ireland 3rd Hampshire F&RS, England, UK 4th London FB, England, UK 5th Crescent Link, Northern Ireland, UK 6th Royal Berks A, England, UK 7th Luxembourg, Luxemburg 8th Palm Harbor, USA 9th Wefarmers Curragh, Australia 10th Greater Manchester F&RS, England, UK
Rapid
1st Hampshire F&RS, England, UK 2nd Royal Berkshire, England, UK 3rd Palm Harbor, USA 4th Cheshire F&R, England, UK 5th Bridgend South Wales F&RS, Wales, UK 6th London FB, England, UK 7th Grand Canaria, Spain 8th Crescent Link, Nothern Ireland, UK 9th Munchengladbach, Germany 10th Luxembourg, Luxemburg
Best Incident Commander
1st Hampshire F&RS, England, UK 2nd Bridgend South Wales F&RS, Wales, UK 3rd Crescent Link, Northern Ireland, UK 4th Royal Berkshire, England, UK 5th Palm Harbor, USA 6th Consorcio de Valencia, Spain 7th London FB, England, UK 8th Murcia, Spain 9th Wefarmers Curragh, Australia 10th Brampton Fire & Emergency, Canada
Best Medic
1st Hampshire F&RS, England, UK 2nd Crescent Link, Northern Ireland, UK 3rd Royal Berkshire, England, UK 4th Bridgend South Wales F&RS, Wales, UK 5th Bombers de Barcelona, Spain 6th London FB, England, UK 7th TRT Osnabrueck Germany 8th Luxembourg, Luxemburg 9th East Sussex F&R, England, UK 10th Palm Harbor, USA
Best Technical
1st Hampshire F&RS, England, UK 2nd Crescent Link, Northern Ireland, UK 3rd Royal Berkshire, England, UK 4th Bridgend South Wales F&RS, Wales, UK 5th London FB, England, UK 6th Palm Harbor, USA 7th Luxembourg, Luxemburg 8th County Carlow, Republic of Ireland 9th Valencia, Spain 10th Derbyshire F&R, England, UK
1 Paul Grey London 2 Sam Harding SWFRS 3 Lee Phillips London 4 Tristan Bowen SWFRS 5 James Dajlid BAA Southampton 6 Rich Wilds Humberside 7 Alan Thomas SWFRS 8 Lee Small London 9 Lee Pontin SWFRS 10 Andy Wilds Humberside
Best Overall Trauma
1st Strathclyde F&R, Scotland, UK 2nd Crescent Link, Northern Ireland, UK 3rd London, England, UK 4th Palm Harbor, USA 5th Surrey, England, UK 6th West Yorks, England, UK 7th Brampton FES 2, Canada 8th Medical Rescue Kaltenkirchen, Germany 9th Fort William, Scotland, UK 10th Royal Berks A, England, UK
1st Leicestershire F&RS, England, UK 2nd Central Scotland F&RS, Scotland UK 3rd Strathclyde F&R, Scotland UK