Firefighters compete in Tinley Challenge

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A firefighter runs with a rope during the Firefighter Combat Challenge Sunday at the Tinley Park Convention Center. | Casey Toner~Sun-Times Media

Updated: November 11, 2011 1:49PM

For 400 firefighters, the Firefighters Combat Challenge in Tinley Park was a time for camaraderie and competition.

For 37-year-old Anthony McMurtry, it was a homecoming. McMurtry, a Lockport native, serves as a firefighter at the Air Force Academy in Colorado.

“I’ve been doing this for 10 years and this is the closest I’ve come to Lockport,” McMurtry said. “It’s fun to get in front of my mom and dad and compete in sports again.”

His family, including his sister Helen, sat in the bleachers and cheered him on as his team qualified for the Firefighter Combat Challenge quarterfinals.

“It’s always great to see him,” Helen said.

McMurtry competed in football, basketball and track and field at Lockport High School before graduating in 1992.

“This is the toughest thing I’ve ever done,” he said of the Challenge, which is advertised as “the toughest two minutes in sport.”

Mutual Aid Box Alarm System Division 24, which is made up of 21 fire departments in the south suburbs, hosted the competition. It was held at the Tinley Park Convention Center. Firefighters from the U.S. and Canada participated.

To complete the obstacle course, firefighters in full gear had to run up four flights of stairs, pull up a hose and run back down the stairs.

Once they got to the bottom, they had to whack a 165-pound piece of metal with a 9-pound hammer, navigate an obstacle course, pull a 165-pound dummy and shoot a fire hose.

David Stark competed with three other fire instructors from Cincinnati State Technical Community College in Ohio. He said the grueling workout helps keep firefighters in shape.

“It’s called the toughest two minutes in sports,” he said. “It’s possibly the worst experience of my life.”

A lesser challenge was set up for children in back of the obstacle course. Children got to cart around a hose and a lightweight dummy and take a ride down a giant inflatable slide.