Firefighters narrowly beat police in debut Big Red Pull event

On Saturday, emergency crews from across Thunder Bay competed to see who could pull a 12‑tonne fire truck 100 feet the fastest.

The Intercity Shopping Centre parking lot was closed off for the charity event supporting United Way.

Each team had a minimum fundraising goal of $1,000 to participate, and all proceeds went to United Way’s Areas of Impact initiative to addresses homelessness, youth well-being, food security, and other community priorities in Thunder Bay.

“This was an amazing event,” said United Way CEO Albert Brulé. “We had fabulous participation from first responders, uniformed personnel, and this amazing team of seniors called Limitless.”

Superior Fire Alarm Sales & Service was the presenting sponsor of the event. The company covers much of northwestern Ontario and provides a variety of fire alarm services including inspections, verifications, repairs and programming.

“We coined the term ‘pulling for the community’, and that’s what we’re doing,” Brulé said.

Trainers from Unleashed Fighting Fitness were on scene to help get the teams ready.

“We’re doing a little bit of jogging, some high knees, some butt kicks, some jumping jacks, some stretching,” said trainer Lexi Kaplanis. “The cops seemed pretty hype, but I think the firefighters got this one.”

The final standings for the 100-foot truck pull are as follows:

“That was hard,” said police constable Tanka Awosika (jokingly). “Something tells me the firefighters had their foot on the brakes.”