Derwent Valley crews on fire at Tasmanian brigade championships

Crews from the Derwent Valley have hosed down the competition at the recent Tasmanian Fire Brigade Championships.

The championships aim to promote firefighter skills in a competitive, safe and social setting.

It also gives firefighters of all ages and experience the chance to practice essential skills, share knowledge and techniques, and strengthen connections between brigades.

This year, all representing teams from the valley performed well, with Bridgewater finishing 2nd overall in the Division 2 seniors category and Gretna Blue finishing 3rd overall in the juniors category.

Gretna also finished 2nd in the combined Senior & Junior aggregate event.

For New Norfolk, team Red won 1st place in the individual wet-hose marshall event and their teams performed well in other events.

But the best result for New Norfolk went to the Senior team, who were awarded the overall best-presented senior team for the 2025 championships.

Other notable awards went to the Gretna juniors, who were given the Paul Hoskin encouragement award.

Ian Cawthorn was also honoured with the Lyndsay Suhr ASFM Memorial Award and Sofia Bowman won the President's Award.

A highlight of the championships was Team Wellington Blue (Div One), which broke a State record in the One Dutch Roll Event with a time of 76.740 seconds.

Gretna previously held the record at 82.99 seconds.