Local fireman to compete internationally

A local fireman and educational instructor is one of ten firefighters chosen from across the country to compete in the first-ever United Arab Emirates International Firefit Championship taking place in Dubai later this month.

Craig Harnum, manager and program director of the Marine Institute of Newfoundland and Labrador's Safety and Emergency Response Training Centre in Stephenville, has been fighting fires for 25 years. He has competed in Scott Firefit Championships for the last eight years, finishing second in the chief officers division the last three years.

He says being chosen for the Canadian team is a great feeling.

"Just to get a chance to compete on an international level is a reward in itself," he says.

Mr. Harnum says Firefit of Canada, who has previously held an Atlantic Canadian Scott Firefit Firefighting competition in Stephenville for several years, has been contracted to bring the event to Dubai.

"It's the exact course that has been in Stephenville, containered and shipped to Dubai," he says.

Mr. Harnum says organizers in Dubai flew a team of men to the Canadian national competition in Quebec last year. The UAE Championship will take place during the world fire trade show, held annually in Dubai, which Mr. Harnum says will also give him the opportunity to market the SERT Centre.

In terms of the competition itself, Mr. Harnum expects the desert heat to play a role in making it more of a challenge than past competitions he's competed in.

"Right now Dubai is actually in the middle of its winter, but today its still 84 degress over there," he says. "There's one guy on site over there and he says it's terribly hot - so it'll be a new experience for us. It'll actually give you a little bit of an indication of what guys go through over there [fighting fires]."

The competition runs Jan. 17 - 19. Mr. Harnum says as far as firefighting events go, the Scott Firefit Championship is regarded by many as a firepersons Olympics.

"It's not very often someone from a small town in Newfoundland gets picked to head to a foreign country for a sporting event," he says.

"It's a pretty good feeling."