Young’s rural fire cadets have finished third at the biannual Rural Fire Cadets State Championships at Narrabri.
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The team – consisting of Officer in Charge Jarrod Livolsi (Hennessy Catholic College), Jack Grant (Boorowa Central School) and Nick Summerfield, Lucas Green, Reid Noyes and Charlie Butt (Young High School) – travelled to Narrabri last weekend for the championships.
Young Shire Council Australian of the Year and team coach, Sam Tout, was proud of his team’s achievement.
The team placed second in three events - sheep run, fire ground fundamentals and Mission Impossible – to earn themselves the state title.
Sheep run involved problem solving when equipment failed as they attempted to get water to a CAT 4 for a mock grass fire.
“It was done in the mud, it’s been fairly wet up there so they went in all bright yellows and came out dark colours by the time they were done,” Sam said.
“The cadets had to transfer water up around a course to a CAT 9 and it was very well done because certain bits of equipment would fail and they’d have to use their problem solving to get around it.”
Mission Impossible involved problem solving skills and working as a team to fix a trailer to transport a water extinguisher bomb to a fire.
“This was a memory-skill as well as having to work together as a team,” Sam said.
“They had to memorise some cards, then they had to move some tires off cones and create a pyramid, but all the tyres were jumbled.
“They were all numbered and had to end up stacked in order.
“For the third part they had to build a trailer and manoeuvre that trailer around a course with a chemical fire extinguisher on it.
“They then had to put that chemical ball down into a gas prop which extinguished the fire.”
Sam said he felt ecstatic at the outcome and pleased the boys were able to achieve a third place.
“It was some pretty mean competition they had to deal with,” he said.
“Their work ethic has increased from training, their communication was down a little bit at the start but they really excelled in the back end of the equation.
“There were a few hiccups but they never gave up, so I was pretty happy with that.
“Even when the chips were down they dug in and got the job done.
“It was a very proud moment for me, they’ve done really well as a team they were very well behaved, and all the marshalls had said that as well.”
Sam thanked all of the parents who assisted and worked behind the scenes. He also thanked Robert Donges for his sponsorship.