A group of St. Lucie County firefighters are world champions after winning first place in the team category of the 2020 Firefighter Combat Challenge held over the weekend in Texas.
Brian Riebe, Kevin Reilly, Caden Wilson, Matt Coney and Dante Hill of the St. Lucie County Fire District had the best averaged completion time of the course dubbed as the "toughest two minutes in sports" by ESPN.
"It’s unbelievable, just pure elation that we accomplished a goal that we set out to do earlier this year," said Coney, a SWAT paramedic driver engineer with the fire district.
The Firefighter Combat Challenge course is divided into five events that participants — either individually, in a tandem or on a relay team — must finish as quickly as possible wearing full bunker gear and an air pack, weighing a total of about 50 pounds.