Posted on: Friday, July 12, 2002
Workout awaits HFD recruits
By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer
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| Firefighter Steven Kau emerges from the Search event. This event consists of crawling through a series of boxes designed to test recruits' ability to navigate their way around obstacles in a dark, confined area.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser |
Running a mile in eight minutes or less, climbing a 70-foot ladder, and dragging hoses that weigh up to 150 pounds are no longer good enough tests for becoming a Honolulu firefighter.
Starting with the 220 candidates in its 86th recruit class, the Honolulu Fire Department will use a tougher standardized national test simulating activities a firefighter would normally perform at a fire scene.
"It gives us a true gauge of a candidate's physical ability to be a firefighter," Fire Chief Attilio Leonardi said.
The candidate physical ability test, which has been adopted by 113 fire departments since it was developed in 1999, replaces the department's physical condition test. It is costing the fire department about $15,000 for two visiting trainers and equipment.
In the first of eight events, the stair climb, candidates wear a 50-pound vest equal to the weight of a self-contained breathing apparatus and protective clothing and hold on to two 12-pound weights. They must walk for three minutes and 20 seconds at a rate of 60 steps per minute, equivalent of walking up to the sixth floor of a building.
"It tests aerobic capacity and measures lower-body muscular strength," said Capt. Derek Alkonis of the Los Angeles County Fire Department, who is here to oversee training. "Because firefighters are always pulling and pushing, lower-body strength is needed for leverage," he said.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser The event sequences are set 85 feet apart. "It gives them 15 to 20 seconds to catch their breath, which is what you get at a fire," Alkonis said.
Once they make it through the stair climb, candidates are put through the following paces:
• Dragging a hose 100 feet in a straight line and around barriers.
• Carrying an electrical saw in each hand and walking 150 feet.
• Raising a ladder from the ground to a wall and then extending a second ladder 24 feet by pulling a rope. The ladder must then be brought down the same way.
• Hitting a padded lock with a sledgehammer. "It usually takes six to 15 swings," Alkonis said.
• Crawling through a series of boxes. "It tests the ability to negotiate over, under and around obstacles in darkness in a confined area," Alkonis said.
• Dragging a 165-pound mannequin 35 feet and back as in a rescue.
• Using a spear-like object to raise an overhead metal flap weighing 80 pounds five times, and pulling a cord to lift up a 60-pound weight three times.
All eight events must be accomplished in 10 minutes and 20 seconds or less.
"If someone is having trouble at No. 1, we usually see a bigger problem at rescue," said Alkonis, whose best time for the test is "seven minutes and change."
But a quick time doesn't mater.
"This is pass or fail," he said. "The best mark of six minutes and 35 seconds is not any better than 10 minutes and 20 seconds as far as we're concerned."
Trainees are also required to swim 100 meters in two minutes and 15 seconds or less, and dive
15 feet to recover a five-pound weight in 45 seconds. The water test will be held at Manoa Recreation Center's pool.
Firefighter Ben Cazimero Jr. tries out the Hose Drag, which is done in a straight line and around barriers.
