First responders compete in 2nd annual Sky Tower challenge
Racers from the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station, L.A. County Fire Department, city of Santa Clarita, Loan Depot and California Highway Patrol competed in the second annual Sky Tower challenge at Six Flags Magic Mountain Wednesday morning.
In the spirit of building up morale and camaraderie among the departments, Capt. Justin Diez with the SCV Sheriff’s Station said last year he had the idea to invite the departments to run up the Sky Tower at Magic Mountain for a friendly competition – the challenge being which department could make it to the top of the Sky Tower the fastest.
Diez said it would take the average racer two to three minutes to make it to the top of the stairs. And, on Wednesday, the winning racer set a record for the fastest climb to the top.
“It’s a great thing to build morale between public sector and private sector. It’s good for everybody to let their hair down a little bit, relax, have some coffee, mess around a little bit, talk a little smack and see who wins,” said Diez.
One by one, racers were sent after the other up the narrow stairs climbing 385 feet to the top. Down below, the racers who waited for their turn to go up were cheering each other on, encouraging their team to move faster to the top.
Justin Miyahira, head of public safety at Magic Mountain, said the theme park was happy to host the challenge again this year and invited public safety and city representatives. He said that events like this build teamwork among the departments.
“A lot of these individuals work together on a day-to-day basis out in the field, but here we have an environment where they have friendly competition, and I think everyone’s having a great time,” said Miyahira.
Last year, the Fire Department won for fastest male racer and a racer from the city of Santa Clarita won for fastest female.
Fire Chief Pat Sprengel said this year the Fire Department was looking to defend its title for the fastest male racer and take the title for fastest female racer.
“Fire loves to compete in these kinds of things and loves the community that we work in,” said Sprengel.
Sprengel agreed that the event helped strengthen the bonds among the departments and build teamworking skills. He said considering that most of the departments work with each other every day, it is important and good for the community that they are connected.
California Highway Patrol Newhall-area public information officer Carlos Burgos-Lopez said that CHP Newhall had several officers competing to try to place in the top four, but the focus was to keep and strengthen the relationships among departments.
Once all the racers were done competing and came down from the tower, Sgt. Jason Ely shared who won:
For the fastest male racer, Justin Skinner with Fire Station 150 won. Skinner completed the challenge in 1 minute and 52 seconds, setting a new record for the fastest time to climb the tower.
From Fire Station 126, Justice Bennett ran the challenge in 3 minutes and 27 seconds winning first place for the fastest female racer, giving the Fire Department a clean sweep over the challenge.
