It's all in a day's work for firefighters.

As part of their duties, they must climb flights of stairs in full gear; sometimes, they must carry unconscious victims from a fire; and they must also be able to get a hose to its intended destination quickly.

For 15 years, some firefighters have been making work fun by participating in the Scott Firefighter Combat Challenge.

"It's mainly to stay fit," said Jeff Phillips, the captain of Fort Gordon's combat challenge team, which fared well at its first competition April 29-30 in Indianapolis.

The challenge requires firefighters to wear full gear and compete in five events, which include "climbing the five-story tower, hoisting, chopping, dragging hoses and rescuing a life-size, 175-pound 'victim' as they race against themselves, their opponent and the clock," according to the firefighter challenge Web site, www.firefighterchallenge.com.

There is a series of regional challenge events throughout the spring and summer, with the world competition scheduled for the end of November in Henderson, Nev. The world event is televised on ESPN.

"It's a lot of fun. You meet a lot of people who do the same job you do," Mr. Phillips said.

The Fort Gordon fire department has had a team for two of the past three years. Several of the team members were deployed to the Middle East for part of last year.

The Indianapolis competition was the first of the season. At that event, the Fort Gordon's male survivor relay team came in first place with a time of 1 minute, 20.64 seconds. In the male individual event, Brandon Cunningham finished first with a time of 1:26.03.

Rob Tello finished 20th. Jeff Phillips was 25th, Mike Trainor came in 27th and Marcus Peterson was 41st.

Assistant Chief Matt Williams finished 10th in the over-40 category. Overall, the team finished fourth.

This is the first time Mr. Tello has competed in the event, despite being a firefighter for about nine years.

"I avoided it. I knew how hard it was," he said.

His fellow firefighters, however, were able to talk him into joining the team.

The Fort Gordon squad will compete the first weekend in June in Virginia Beach, Va.