By Callum Ludwig
A long-time Wesburn-Millgrove CFA member is striving to beat a personal best at the 9th annual Melbourne Firefighters Stair Climb on Saturday 10 September.
Firefighter Tony Lewis has an intense training regime for 28 floors of stairs to climb Crown Metropol Hotel wearing 25kgs of turnout gear and breathing apparatus in under five minutes.
Mr Lewis said this will be his eighth consecutive year of competing in the stair climb.
“I do it because I find that it’s a great way of reaching out and helping all the fantastic organisations that help people outside of our community, but the entire Australian community,” he said.
“A brigade at any given time is assisting people from your local community but the Melbourne Firefighters Stair Climb been able to help the Alfred [Hospital’s] Burns Unit back in the early days, and The Black Dog Institute, Lifeline, Fortem Australia and The Triple 000 Foundation, which help people across Australia.”
Mr Lewis goes to the gym three times a week, on top of every Saturdayat sunrise heading to Mt Donna Buang, climbing 3km from the Ten Mile Carpark to the summit, then doing 10 stair climbs of the lookout tower before jogging back to his car.
Mr Lewis said his goal is to complete the challenge in under five minutes.
“I generally get around the five-minute mark, and even though I’m getting a little bit older, I’m hoping to be around that or a bit under hopefully,” he said.
“From the Wesburn-Millgrove brigade, it will be myself and Troy Morton-Thick doing the climb. He’s been with us a few years but is fairly new and is really looking forward to helping out this year. He’s been training with me on a couple of occasions.”
Mr Lewis has currently raised $1390 for the event, the 7th most of any individual firefighter.
Mr Lewis said he finds it really satisfying to participate in the event.
“It’s satisfying knowing that you’re helping others, and you get to meet other fantastic like-minded people on the day for the climb from the other fire services. People attend South Australia, New South Wales and even New Zealand as well,” he said.
“In previous years, we’ve had the Police Force participate as well, and this year, some Defence Force personnel. It’s just nice being able to catch up with these people and know that we are all here as a team to assist our communities.”
You can donate to Mr Lewis’ fundraising efforts here: www.firefighterclimb.org.au/donations/donate/tonylewis/
