The Orana Composite Team consisting of crew leader Craig Walters and Brad O’Leary from Elong Elong, Peter, Tim and Jason Conn from Comobella and Joe Cooper from Dubbo Headquarters were among 200 of the state’s finest volunteer firefighters who battled it out in Pambula at the weekend.

The crew faced a gruelling schedule of nine events over two days.

“Because we come from different brigades, we tried to get together to practise but it turned out we only got one session where we were all together,” Mr Walters said.

One of the events known as Renovation Rescue was a scenario involving a four-vehicle crash and gas fires, while crews were put through their paces responding to a simulated crash involving a plane that had hit powerlines.

While it shone in many events, the Orana Composite side was particularly thrilled to come away with victory in the Pambula Drop exercise, Mr Walters said.

“It was a navigation exercise where we had to find three checkpoints, involving a five-kilometre trek up and down hills,” he said.

Col Buckler and Richard Sears from the Orana RFS also competed in the Chainsaw Challenge, the latter taking out third place.

Local firefighters’ dominance of the championships continued when Orana Cadets were announced winners of the air base inferno event.

The camaraderie and having the opportunity to tackle scenarios they might not otherwise be exposed to were among the highlights of the event for the Orana Composite team.

When asked about the physical toll the championships took on them, the champion crew’s responses ranged from “absolutely stuffed” to “everything that could ache was aching”.

The crew said the first day was particularly “full on”, with seven events back to back where they had to think on their feet.

“The actors and scenarios, the make-up for the simulations were all amazing,” Mr Walters said.

While their achievements, and those of the other Orana competitors, were no doubt outstanding, Orana Composite were modest about their success.

“We didn’t really have aspirations to win, we thought we would be happy if we got a place in just one of the events,” Mr Walters said.

“When we were presented with our prize, the presenter said, ‘you guys look genuinely surprised’.

“We said, ‘there’s a reason for that’.”

The crew’s efforts were more than worth it, however, with the prize of an Isuzu D-Max on its way to the district to be used as a community support vehicle.