Have you got what it takes to be a first responder?
On Wednesday, Aug. 21 Coquitlam RCMP will be at the Coquitlam Crunch (2675 Guildford Way) and Port Coquitlam Climb (1500 Shaughnessy St.) from 9 to 11 a.m. to answer questions about the physical requirements to become an officer as well as demonstrate their own capabilities doing the ascents with other first responders from Coquitlam Fire and Rescue, Port Coquitlam Fire Service, Transit Police, the BC Explosive Disposal and Chemical/Biological/Radiological/Nuclear Response Unit and B.C. Emergency Health Services.
“Being a first responder can be physically demanding,” said Coquitlam RCMP spokesperson Corp. Alexa Hodgins in a news release.
“We wanted to provide an opportunity for potential applicants to experience that in a fun way.”
The physical assessment to become an RCMP officer includes:
- the ability to complete a 500-metre run with directional changes as well as climbing a 1.4-metre chain-link fence a the halfway point
- push and pull a sled that requires overcoming 37 kg of resistance with a position change to lying down then returning to standing at the halfway point followed by pulling down a mannequin with more than 54 kg of force, all without stopping
- load 23 objects of different styles and shapes but weighing 23 kg each into the back of truck bed against the clock followed by a 50 metre run while carrying a weight that resembles the position and size of half a stretcher with an injured adult aboard. This task must be completed three times against the clock
- wearing hard armour gear, sprint 150 metres, climb two flights of stairs, then an additional sprint while carrying a 4.5-kg weight in less than 90 seconds
Each component of the final assessment is done in full police uniform with a weight to replicate an officer’s duty belt and armoured vest.
“Each assessment replicates common, essential, physically demanding tasks that may occur in policing,” said the RCMP’s recruiting website.
Physical requirements to become a firefighter include:
- an aerobic endurance test lasting at least 18 minutes conducted on a treadmill that increases in gradient by one per cent every minute to a maximum of 15 per cent then speeds up .5 mph every minute until the applicant can’t continue
- lift and carry vehicle extrication tools weighing 20 kg and 36 kg to a designated point 15 metres away, then carry the smaller tool another 7.6 metres to a mock-up of a vehicle door where it must be set up in a proper position, then carry both tools back to the starting point, all in 225 seconds or less
- pull three lengths of 44 mm hose, fully-charged with pressurized water for 30 metres in 27 seconds or less
- pull a weighted sled across three 50-metre segments in 110 seconds or less
- strike the surface of a forcible entry apparatus with a 4.5 kg sledgehammer to attain a prescribed measure for muscle strength and striking power in 19 seconds or less
- drag an 83 kg mannequin through aa 15 metre serpentine obstacle course, around a traffic cone then back to the start in 57 seconds or less
- climb and descend 10 rungs of a 7.2 m ladder five times in 97 seconds or less
The physical test is held in full protective gear — including a self-contained breathing apparatus — and conducted at Langara College’s Department of Kinesiology.
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