More than 100 firefighters gather for UFBA driving competition in Feilding

Firefighters from across the country will test their driving skills at the UFBA driving competition in Feilding on August 8-9.

Manoeuvring a 12-tonne fire engine is one of the skills firefighters from across New Zealand will show off at Feilding’s Manfeild Park this week.

More than 100 firefighters will take part in the annual United Fire Brigades’ Association (UFBA) driving competition at the Chris Amon Circuit on Friday and Saturday.

The event is an opportunity for brigade drivers completing Emergency Response Driver Certificates to further hone their skills and learn from others in a safe and supportive environment while boosting organisation-wide camaraderie.

“Most of our competitors are volunteer firefighters, who make up 86% of Fire and Emergency’s frontline workforce,” UFBA chief executive Bill Butzbah said.

The tasks are aimed at testing special awareness and critical decision-making.

This opportunity allows “for sharing, upskilling [and] testing against compliance”.

The competition has a series of challenges aimed at simulating real-life scenarios that brigade drivers regularly face on New Zealand roads. They will begin with a pre-drive theory test, then complete 11 individual exercises in fire engines.

They will be judged on their “overall ability, efficiency, aptitude and smoothness of operation”.

Some of the tasks that drivers will be asked to complete are bay and parallel parking, straight-line driving, lane changes, braking, estimating clearance and negotiating serpentine and shrinking chicanes – S-shaped road curves. All of these are aimed at testing spatial awareness and critical decision-making.

Spectators are welcome and can learn about the “world of firefighters”. The competition is on Friday, noon to 3pm, and Saturday, 8.30am to 4pm. Free spectator entry via South St.