• A charitable competition among firefighters from three states has generated more than $16,000 for the University of Utah Health Burn Center.
• The inaugural Petzl Rope Rescue Challenge involved firefighter teams that used high-angle rescue skills to perform simulated rescues in multi-story buildings.
• An employee at Marathon Petroleum’s Salt Lake City refinery conceived of the event, which included teams from city, county and refining industry fire departments.

Teams from fire departments in three states used their high-angle rescue skills to benefit the University of Utah Health Burn Center in Salt Lake City. They competed in the inaugural Petzl Rope Rescue Challenge, helping provide more than $16,000 to the center, which annually treats more than 4,500 patients from across Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming as the only American Burn Association-verified facility in the Intermountain West region. 

“I wanted to bring the emergency response community together while improving skill levels through a friendly competition and build bonds between the teams,” said Brock Carter who conceived the idea for the event. Carter serves as employee engagement strategy lead at Marathon Petroleum Corporation’s (MPC) Salt Lake City refinery and as co-chair of the Utah State Emergency Response Commission.

The refinery collaborated with other area companies to underwrite the event and generate the donation to the burn center. Primary organizing assistance came from Petzl America, a maker of harnesses, ropes, pulleys and other safety and rescue equipment for use at elevated heights.

In all, 60 firefighters from 10 teams took part. They represented city, county and refining industry fire departments in California, Texas and Utah, including the departments at MPC’s refineries in El Paso, Los Angeles and Salt Lake City. Over a two-day period, the competitors simulated rescues of people from multi-story buildings at the Salt Lake City municipal fire department’s training grounds and Petzl America’s headquarters.

“Each team had to complete six different types of patient rescues using their high-angle ropes training,” Carter said. “Judges scored their performance on safety, speed, patient care, rope skill levels and teamwork.”

The top three finishers were the Salt Lake City municipal fire department; the Orange County, California, fire department and one of two teams entered by MPC’s Salt Lake City refinery.

“This really built strong relationships between response teams,” said Carter. “We had a ton of cross-training beforehand and have planned even more since. In the future, these departments could call on each other if the need arises.”