Written about us

Fire-fighters, the vanquishers

The Paks Nuclear Power Plant's fire-fighters came first in all the three categories of the fire service team competition in Bonyhád on 30 May, and won the winner's cup as well on the base of the total score.
József Tóbi, training executive, who prepared the Nuclear Power Plant's fire-fighters team, gave some information about the competition.
- What kind of challenge did the competition mean?
- All the competition numbers were based on professional, fire extinguishing tasks, the competitors had to give evidence of their knowledge in practice, and of their physical endurance. On the two-day-long programme in addition to the professional, public fire services, many voluntary fire services gathered to compete. This event traditionally takes place annually, but this year it was a bit different as Tolna's municipality fire service entered for the competition among the professional teams. There were five teams competing in the professional category among them; Szekszárd, Dombóvár, Tolna, Paks, and the Nuclear Power Plant's Fire Service. Simultaneously with the competitions in the adult category there were competitions for the students as well, including questions about the history of fire services, too.

- What kind of tasks did the competition consist of?
- Practically, the tasks were divided in three different groups. The first category was a 4x100-meter relay race, which included a "hut conquering". It meant climbing a ladder leant against a house specially built for this purpose, running along the roof and jumping off. The second number was to assemble a 800 l/min, low-powered engine extinguisher hosepipe. We achieved the best time ever in this number with a time of 24.94sec. We have no information if anybody has ever had a time like ours in Hungary. The next tasks were the individual numbers. A 100-metre 'obstacle' racing, where the competitors had to overcome the obstacles- first to get over a panel, run along a beam with two coils of pipes, uncoil then connect them, finally assemble the extinguishing hoses and run through the finish. The best result was a place on the podium, achieved by László Hanol.

- How did the jury asses the competition numbers?
- The teams got scores for their place in the different numbers, this way the total score was determined. The competitors had two opportunities to perform each task, and the better accomplishment was taken into account. In case of the individual 100-metre 'obstacle' racing, the team scores were determined by adding up the six best results out of the eight competitors. The competition results were really close, there was 0.63 difference between the two first competitors.

- How did you prepare for the competition?
- Unfortunately, the accident on the Unit 2 deranged or preparation plan, the home competition was even cancelled. Up to this year we had traditionally organised a intramural competition before the county competition and the best competitors of the different teams were chosen to enter for the county competition. This year we didn't have time as we were on duty all the time during the incident prevention period. We were able to prepare just for 3-4 days in our spare time. This team except two young participants have many-year experience, they took part in many competitions, that's why we dared to enter for the county competition.

- Who were the members of the team?
- The team included ten competitors and a reserve, they were the following: Károly Fodor, László Hanol, Sándor Juhász, István Kovács, János Lacza, Tibor Mikolics, Szilárd Papp, Rajmund Pesztericz, Tamás Szabó, Zoltán Szabó and Ferenc Széles.We were able to win the challenge-cup for the third time. The country fire service was transformed into disaster protection board in 2000 and challenge-cup was established that year.

- What are your plans after the county competition?
- This year there is no national competition as it is held every second year and this year is the first. Last Year the national competition was organise in Paks, and we had fantastic results out of the competition. This kind of events is a challenge and an opportunity to make friends at the same time. The county competition was a great success as well with many participants, great atmosphere. After the competition the teams prepared delicious stew, which they ate together.
I congratulate you on your fantastic achievements and wish you great success.

TŰZvédelem- June 2003