Local firefighters blitz fundraising in stair climb
Local firefighters pulled off some impressive feats at the Firefighter Sky Tower Challenge recently, with Frankton volunteers becoming the first local team to win a grand trophy for their fundraising, placing third in their 6 to 9-member category nationally.
Karl Argyle, Matt Phare, Criag McIntosh, Shiyee Teo, Jamie Harris and Tania Sedunary raised a whopping $36,633 as a team – an average of $6105 each.
Argyle also clocked an impressive 13 minutes 42 seconds. At 50, he was fifth out of 98 in his ‘Grand Masters’ class and 91st out of 1101 entrants – 84th fastest among the males.
Argyle says Queenstown Brigade’s Tania Stone also made an exceptional effort in the individual section, raising $12,700, while Queenstown Airport firefighter Lee Winter was the fastest local in this year’s event – 12 minutes, 56 seconds.
The hugely popular mass fundraising event that’s been running for 22 years now raises funds for Blood Cancer NZ and attracts firefighters from all over New Zealand, who train for months to take on the Auckland Sky Tower’s gruelling 1103 steps in full kit and wearing 25kgs of breathing apparatus.
Argyle says he started training in January in full kit and breathing apparatus initially doing the weekly Park Runs around Queenstown Gardens.
“The first round I took 46 minutes but by the last one that was 29 minutes 28 seconds.”
His previous time when he last did the event four years ago was 14 minutes 39 seconds.
During training in 2022 he caused quite a stir after coming across two hunters – only one of whom knew him.
“I was running up Wye Creek in full kit wearing breathing apparatus and had taken our family dog with me,” Karl grins.
“One of the hunters radioed to his mate and said: ‘I’m not taking drugs, but a guy just ran past me in full firefighting kit wearing breathing apparatus carrying a white fluffy dog!’” Argyle laughs.
“The other guy replied on the radio, ‘It’s ok. That’ll be Karl’.”
Last month’s climb was his first real exercise since that event four years ago, so Argyle was pleased with his time and the money they raised during all that “shaking the bucket” around town.
“I’d really like to thank the community for their help giving us all of those donations. That was really cool,” he says.
Organiser Tony Scott says this year’s event was sold out within 13 minutes and they had to turn 200 eager participants away.
“We had 1200 entrants, almost 8% of the country’s entire Fire Service all in one place. That’s up 100 from last year,” he says.
The climb raised more than $2 million this year, also a record, and has raised more than $20.2 million for the cause in its 22 years.
Scott says Blood Cancer NZ have been humbled by the huge efforts and sacrifices of the firefighters.
“They say it’s phenomenal and what they’ve done has been a huge help. It’s enabled staff to be employed, patients who need it to receive financial assistance, advocacy, and exciting new research.”
