By Matthew Artz
Inside Bay Area (California)
Copyright 2006 MediaNews Group, Inc. and ANG Newspapers
All Rights Reserved
FREMONT, Calif. — Anyone trapped inside a burning building should hope that Justin Earls and Brian Guernsey are on shift.
The two Fremont firefighters placed second in the tandem competition and also anchored Fremont’s five-man team to a second-place finish in the third annual Fremont Firefighter Combat Challenge which was part of the Fremont Festival of the Arts.
With 36 teams representing cities as far-flung as Miami and Anchorage, it was one of the finest-ever showings by Fremont’s bravest, said retired Battalion Chief John Cerruti.
Nine years ago, Cerruti briefly held the over-50 world record in the sport — an obstacle course containing some of the toughest challenges a firefighter faces.
Competitors, wearing 50 pounds of equipment, must climb five flights of stairs, then pull a 42-pound hose pack to the top of the stairs, run back down, hammer a 160-pound sled to simulate busting through a roof, run through an obstacle course carrying a 140-pound hose,and finally drag a 175-pound dummy 106 feet.
“If you can do this, you can climb any building in Fremont,” Guernsey said.
He now trains with the New York Yankees of firefighting competition, the two-time defending world champion fire department of Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield.
Guernsey said he would rather beat Travis than see his beloved 49ers win a Super Bowl, but neither looks likely anytime soon.
In the finals, Travis demolished Fremont by 16 seconds, finishing the obstacle course in just under 1 minute, 11 seconds. The military men also swept the men’s individual competition on Saturday.
Guernsey finished eighth in the individual competition at 1 minute, 38 seconds, good enough for a spot in the nationally-televised world championships later this year in Las Vegas.
“It’s great to see firefighters get their due as pure athletes,” said George Rodgers, of Fremont, one of about 200 spectators in the stands Sunday on State Street, where the competition was part of the Fremont Festival of the Arts.
For a fleeting moment, Fremont Capt. Gerry Fogel, 46, was a superstar. He motored past his competition with the 175-pound dummy in tow, giving Fremont’s over-40 team a narrow win over a team from Placer Hills.
A few minutes later, though, the team was eliminated, which was just fine with a winded Fogel. “We didn’t really have time to train or practice for this,” he said.
Not so for Earls and Guernsey, who have incorporated the obstacle course into their workout schedule and travel the country on their own dime competing in challenges.
They finished third last year in Fremont and second earlier this summer in Seattle. For their work on Sunday, they each received a silver-colored medal, plaque and $200 in cash.
“This will go to pay for the next event in Dallas,” Guernsey said, pointing to his winnings. “And then it’s on to the world championships.”