Firefighter Sky Tower Challenge 2024: Te Awamutu brigade prepare for big day

The 2022 Te Awamutu Firefighter Sky Tower Challenge team.

The Te Awamutu Volunteer Fire Brigade will prepare for the annual Firefighter Sky Tower Challenge on Saturday.

They will collectively climb the equivalent of Mount Everest - 44,250 stairs in their firefighting gear - at Pak’nSave Te Awamutu.

The volunteers will take turns on a stair-climb machine as they fundraise for their participation in this year’s Firefighter Sky Tower Challenge, taking place on May 18.

The Sky Tower Challenge raises funds for Kiwis living with blood cancer.

Te Awamutu Volunteer Fire Brigade members are extremely proud to have taken part in the challenge every year, since the inaugural event in 2005.

This year, 16 members will head to Auckland to race up the Sky Tower’s 51 floors - or 1103 steps - wearing full firefighting kit including breathing apparatus, all weighing around 25kg.

Firefighters are sponsored and supported by friends, family, and their local community to take part in the challenge.

At Saturday’s Te Awamutu fundraising event there will be fun for the whole family with raffles, firetrucks, donation buckets, silent auctions and getting to know the local firefighters.

The Firefighter Sky Tower Challenge, now in its 20th year, is run jointly by Leukaemia and Blood Cancer New Zealand (LBC) and FireUp Events, an organisation operated by members of the New Zealand firefighter community focused on raising funds for charities like LBC.

LBC is New Zealand’s national organisation dedicated to supporting patients and their families living with a blood cancer – leukaemia, lymphoma or myeloma or a related blood condition.

Donors’ efforts are vital to help LBC continue to grow their services.

The Firefighter Sky Tower Challenge is open only to firefighters who have fully approved structural firefighting turnout gear.

Visit firefighterschallenge.org.nz/about for more information or firefighterschallenge.org.nz/t/te-awamutu-volunteer-fire-brigade to donate to the team.