By Karly DeMars, BLM State Fire Planner; and Chris Barth, BLM State Fire Mitigation and Education Specialist
Physical fitness is essential to firefighter performance, mental health, and safety. For example, fatigue has been found to be a contributing factor in many firefighter accidents. To encourage physical fitness, the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) sponsors the annual BLM Fire Operations Fitness Challenge. The voluntary fitness challenge provides a common system by which BLM firefighters can measure current fitness, establish fitness goals, track fitness improvement, and receive recognition for their efforts.
Recently, several BLM Montana/Dakotas wildland firefighters participated in the annual BLM Fire Operations Fitness Challenge. The highest scoring male and female participants in Montana/Dakotas were recognized for their achievements. Both are firefighters from the North Central Montana District and work at the Zortman Fire Station. First-year seasonal firefighter, Jessica Race, was the top female participant and third-year seasonal firefighter, Kevin Henry, was the top male participant. Those participants scoring a Level 4 (300 points) were also recognized for their achievements.
“Firefighter fitness and well-being are the foundation to maintaining a healthy and resilient workforce to meet the demands of the job. BLM Montana/Dakotas encourages all our firefighting staff and partners to participate in high-quality training and fitness activities for the challenges they face,” said Aaron Thompson, BLM Montana/Dakotas State Fire Management Officer. “While the BLM Fire Operations Fitness Challenge is voluntary, Montana/Dakotas firefighters consistently participate in this annual activity, and we are proud of both Kevin and Jessica for their accomplishments.”
The BLM Fire Operations Fitness Challenge tests participants in four basic exercises — push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups, and a timed run of either 1.5 or 3.0 miles. Participants are evaluated using a point system for each exercise category. Achievement is categorized in level increments where Level 1 is the minimum and Level 5 the maximum fitness level.
Congratulations to all 2021 BLM Fire Operations Fitness Challenge participants!
For more information on BLM’s Fire Operations Fitness Challenge, visit: www.nifc.gov/about-us/our-partners/blm/training/fitness-challenge.
It would be cool if this article gave us the winner’s results. Maybe even give us the stats of all the participants so we could know the average fitness of these BLM firefighters.
>not posting the actual numbers achieved by the high scorers
>not posting lists of top performances for each event
Smh, what are they teaching in the PIO course these days?
Congratulations to all that participated. Firefighter performance, mental health and safety have come a long way since the “Step Test” days.