Combat Challenge Includes Special 911 Observance

The Firefighters Combat Challenge this weekend starts off on Saturday, September 10th with individual competition.  Micah Rush is a Casper Fire-EMS firefighter and combat team member and he says that's the toughest part.

"Each competitor will do the whole course themselves. They'll be on a team and the team takes the top three times from the top three individuals results. The results are combined for a team time. So that day is kind of the hard day, because you're basically doing the whole course by yourself."

Activities start at 11am both days with a special 9-11 memorial observation opening Sundays program.

"So we'll have our honor guard there, our color guard. We'll be handing out an award to a firefighter who performed a heroic act and then we'll also be doing a tribute to people who have been giving to the 911 cause."

Rush says, also on day two, competition moves into relay and tandem events and  throughout both days a kids firefighter challenge mimics the course down to the Velcro reflective trim on the gear. He says kids carry a shoulder hose, and work a miniature Keiser Force Machine...

"they can come out and do the same thing we're doing just on a smaller scale. And we'll have other vendors there too. There will be free events, a get-out-safe free house, a climbing wall, and its all free to the kids."

The entire two days of competition are free for spectators. That's the 2011 Firefighter Combat Challenge event on the 200 block of South David Street in downtown Casper this weekend.