Sheffield fire crew win national contest for second year running

The competition was held to test firefighters from across the country in search and rescue skills in heat and smoke conditions.

The winning Sheffield crew were Central White Watch, who were awarded first place in the UK finals of the Breathing Apparatus (BA) Challenge.

The crew were back in the white hot atmosphere of the finals and were outstanding as they defended the title they won last year.

This year South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue firefighters competed against 15 other crews from across the UK, including West Yorkshire, West Midlands and Cornwall.

Each team tackled a series of scenarios involving the rescue of ‘casualties’ from inside smoke-filled buildings at Fire Service College in Moreton-in-Marsh in northeastern Gloucestershire.

Awards were also won by Will Selby, who was named best entry control officer, and Chris Moore and John Taylor who won best BA team. A second team from South Yorkshire, made up of officers and instructors from across the service, finished fourth.

Judges at the competition named the Central crew overall winners after scoring firefighters in a number of different skill areas including BA search and rescue, firefighting while in BA, pump operator, BA entry control officer and incident command.

Officers say the competition is proof of the skill and professionalism of the county’s crews.

Deputy chief fire officer, John Roberts, who attended the event, said: “We’re very proud that for the second year in a row a crew from South Yorkshire has taken first place in a national competition that was filled with ultra professional, highly-skilled firefighters. The standard is always extremely high but is rising year on year, so for our crew to perform again to such a high standard on the national stage is a fantastic achievement.”