English

Firefighters hold stair-climbing race in Minsk

Firefighters climbed the stairs of one of Minsk’s tallest buildings in a race on April 8.

The 33-floor stair-climbing race inside Royal Plaza saw the contestants take part in full firefighting gear that weighs around 25 kilograms. The contest featured both Minsk-based firefighters and a team from Russia’s Saint Petersburg.

“Such competitions are held to better prepare our crews [for fighting fires],” said Andrey Krawchuk, deputy head of the Minsk city emergency management department. “High-rise buildings are being constructed in Minsk at a fast pace and they create certain challenges to firefighting efforts.”

“Nine teams have already finished the race and the best time so far is three minutes 56 seconds… These are the actions that they will be doing while extinguishing a fire. The distance from the start to the finish is 110 meters.”

“The race was tough,” said contestant Vikentsiy Pyarzhynski. “Our crew had managed to keep the planned pace until we reached the 10th floor, we climbed the remaining 20 floors through much pain.”

“The muscles worked too hard and at a certain point they became too firm and heavy, it was very difficult to climb the steps. There are very many emergencies in high-rise buildings,” said firefighter Mikalay Klimovich.