London’s firefighters need to be fit both physically and psychologically. Dominic Bliss visits one of the capital’s busiest fire stations as new recruits are put through rigorous training
PIC CREDIT: Kay Zieba
London’s firefighters regularly face gruelling ordeals like this. But before joining the service they must undertake various tests: as well as a medical exam, an eye test, an interview and written tests, they must pass a fitness test with seven separate challenges. (See box for details.)
While these challenges aren’t extraordinarily taxing, they are designed to root out anyone without the basic skills required for the job. Firefighters must be confident on high ladders and in enclosed spaces.
They require manual dexterity, a certain strength and good aerobic fitness. The test levels are the same for men and women.
On a bitterly cold day in February, I went to one of London’s busiest fire stations, Paddington, in the west of the capital. Coincidentally, it is just over a mile and a half from the now-abandoned Grenfell Tower.
There were four recruits being tested, all male. While most firefighters are male, there are no gender restrictions for the job. Provided applicants are over 17 years and six months in age, nor are there age, height or weight restrictions. A full driving licence and UK or EU citizenship or permanent residency are required.
The four recruits had already passed their treadmill tests, so when I arrived, their first activity of the day was the ladder climb. With a 13.5-metre ladder propped up against the huge, concrete drill tower that stands sentry over the fire station yard, they were timed as they climbed up, locked their legs around a rung and leant back with hands outstretched.
This was followed swiftly by the casualty-drag test and the ladder lift. More tricky was the enclosed-space test. In full uniform, with a breathing apparatus face mask, recruits had to crawl at a spritely space through a warren of steel cages.
It may have resembled one of those mazes you find in soft-play centres, but it certainly wasn’t child’s play. The uniform impeded each man’s passage. This test is designed to root out anyone with claustrophobia as firefighters on active duty regularly find themselves forced to squeeze between tight spaces.
Body and mind
The equipment-assembly test looked straightforward for anyone with basic manual dexterity but, when you factor in the strict time limit, it ratcheted up the psychological pressure.
The most difficult test of all – in my opinion, at least – was the final one, the equipment carry. A mixture of sprinting, as well as strenuous and awkward carrying – all in full unform – it requires a good level of aerobic fitness and body strength. All four recruits passed with time to spare.
In fact, during the entire day, only one recruit failed, and that was in the casualty drag. I won’t single out who it was; suffice to say, he failed to drag the dummy around the course within the prescribed time.
Dan Blackwell is the fitness adviser at Paddington fire station and leader of these recruit fitness tests. Between 250 and 300 potential employees apply every year, and all must come to Paddington to prove themselves.
A former firefighter himself, 39-year-old Blackwell told me that around 15 per cent of applicants fail his test, usually just in one of the disciplines. He considers the treadmill and the equipment carry the two toughest sections. In the latter, some female recruits might be carrying almost half their bodyweight.
Time pressures
The fact that each test is strictly timed adds enormous pressure, he explained. Recruits are not allowed to watch their colleagues during each test, and they’re not allowed to time themselves – both of which would give unfair advantages.
Another hindrance is the requirement to wear full firefighter uniform plus helmet and the rather unwieldy boots. However, potential firefighters are encouraged to attend experience days before they undergo the tests, when they can practise the skills required.
Blackwell said that emergencies in high-rise buildings – from malfunctioning lifts all the way up to full-on infernos – pose the greatest fitness challenges for active firefighters. “Running up internal staircases to the higher floors is tough,” he told Men’s Fitness.
“Some can be up to 26 storeys high. Grenfell, for example, was 24 storeys.” Factor in the need to wear breathing apparatus, plus the heat, smoke and chaos of a fire, and it’s obvious unfit applicants will never cut the mustard.
Road traffic accidents, in particular, test firefighters’ strength. The hydraulic tools they use to rescue injured people from car crashes – including a huge steel-cutting device nicknamed “jaws of life” – are heavy and cumbersome. “It’s hard work cutting cars up,” Blackwell said.
“When I was a firefighter, that’s when I felt most exhausted. You’re holding heavy equipment and maybe cutting the roof off the car, worrying about the people in the car.”
Rescuing unconscious bodies from fires poses physical problems, too. Imagine if you had to drag an 18-stone person who had passed out due to smoke inhalation from a top floor flat in a high-rise building where the lifts were no longer safe to use. “That can be tough,” Blackwell added. “It’s a complete dead weight.”
Annual challenge
One place where you’ll find many of the nation’s fittest firefighters is at the annual British Firefighter Challenge. First staged in 2016, this year’s event will take place in Watford on July 26th and 27th.
Around 300 firefighters are expected to compete, roughly two-thirds male and one-third female, taking on disciplines such as stair ascent and descent; lifting hoses onto the roof of a tower; hose rolling and dragging; container carrying and dummy dragging.
John Gregory is chairman of the British Firefighter Challenge. An active firefighter in the Leicestershire Fire Service, he points out that the disciplines his competitors undertake are far more rigorous than those in the standard UK fire service fitness tests; more akin to the first few minutes at a dynamic incident.
“To have to run up three floors with equipment, haul equipment aloft, run back down, strike a sledgehammer multiple times, carry equipment and a dummy – all those activities get your VO2 max, heart rate and breathing rate so much higher than the standard UK fire service fitness test,” he told Men’s Fitness.
Gregory understands fire services operate a national minimum standard “to be inclusive so that everybody has the opportunity to join”. However, he suggests younger recruits, particularly, should be tested more rigorously. Ultimately, he wants British firefighters to achieve higher fitness standards.
“We should be trying to endorse a much healthier and active lifestyle so that firefighters are way above that minimum standard. We should be striving for more, not less, to keep our firefighters safer.”
Firefighting fit
There are seven fitness tests for potential London Fire Brigade recruits. All have to be completed within strict time limits.
Chester treadmill test
Recruits must prove a minimum aerobic capacity of 42mls of oxygen consumed per kg of body weight per minute. For 12 minutes they walk at 6.2 kmh. Two minutes at zero per cent gradient; then an increase of three per cent every two minutes, up to a 15 per cent gradient.
Ladder climb
Recruits climb a 13.5-metre ladder before employing a leg lock, removing their hands from the ladder, looking down to the assessor below and identifying a symbol.
Ladder lift
Recruits raise the bar of a 30-kg ladder-lift simulator to a height of 190cm.
Casualty drag
Recruits drag a 55-kg dummy backwards around a 30-metre flat course.
Enclosed space
Wearing a breathing apparatus face mask, recruits crawl and walk through a steel cage. Halfway through, their vision is obscured and they must retrace their steps to the start point.
Equipment assembly
A test of manual dexterity, this requires recruits to assemble and then disassemble a portable metal pump.
Equipment carry
Recruits sprint and carry various heavy equipment around a set course within five minutes and 47 seconds.
For information on joining London Fire Brigade, visit www.london-fire.gov.uk
