Mumbai: The Mumbai Fire Brigade bagged seven medals at the 13th World Firefighters Games in South Korea earlier this month. Three officers were even awarded for being ‘toughest firefighter alive’. They were part of the team India that ranked seventh with over 50 medals.
The games were started in 1990 with the purpose of exchanging firefighting information between countries. The 13th edition was conducted in Chungju between September 10 and September 17. The games have 75 events (on the lines of Olympics as well as specific ones for firefighters) and are held every two years. This year saw participation of around 5,000 people from 50 countries.
A team of 13 officers from the Mumbai Fire Brigade took part. “We got permission to participate only two days before the event. Every officer is fit because as part of the training, all of us hit the gym routinely. We had also taken part in national fire games and performed well. That is why we decided to give it a try. This was our first attempt,” Deepak Ghosh, divisional fire officer at Byculla, said.
These officers along with members of other squads from India played as a team in many games. They were provided accommodation, but none of them liked the Korean food and ended up cooking dal-chawal or Maggi.
Mr. Ghosh, station officer Ajeenath Sonavane, and assistant station officer Amol Mulik won in the ‘toughest firefighter alive’ competition. This has multiple categories such as hose draw, obstacle course, tower, and climbing stairs to test firemen’s speed, strength, skills, and response time.
In all, the Mumbai team won three gold, three silver, and one bronze medal. Station officer Sanket Naik won gold in the doubles free tennis category while fireman Rohit Chavan got gold in javelin throw. Fireman Pravin Kedare bagged a gold medal in baseball. The three silver medals came in water polo, relay 4x400, and relay 4x100 in the below-30 category. The team returned to Mumbai recently.
“The entire team has gained a lot of confidence after the performance. We now want to perform in the next games after two years with better training and a bigger contingent,” Mr. Ghosh said.
