Nearly two years of hard work finally paid off for the Whitehorse Fire Department this past weekend.

Dozens of firefighters and Emergency Medical Services crew from the Yukon, Alberta and Saskatchewan competed in the Scott FireFit regional combat challenge championships on Saturday, in front of packed bleachers in the S.S. Klondike parking lot.

It was the first time ever that FireFit Canada hosted a regional competition North of 60, and by all accounts, it couldn't have gone much better.

Dale McRoberts, the president of FireFit, and a few others drove all of the combat challenge equipment on trucks up the Alaska Highway from Vancouver, which took them five days because of a few stops. But in the end, he said, the long drive was worth it.

'We've never had a better event,' stated McRoberts. 'The competition is topnotch, the sight is topnotch and a big thing for us is the support. What really helps is when we have the fire department behind us. The chief (Clive Sparks) was down here and he's really gotten behind the local guys.'

Local combat team member James Paterson said everything turned out perfect, despite the initial disappointment over the lack of Outside departments attending.

'It turned out better than we imagined in just about every way,' said Paterson.

The prairies were well-represented at the event, as firefighters from Grande Prairie, Strathcona (outside of Edmonton), Airdrie (outside of Calgary), Fort McMurray and Prince Albert, Sask. made the trip north. But just one department from B.C. decided to compete Fort Nelson which is probably due to the fact a regional event was scheduled last-minute in Comox, B.C. over the same weekend.

'Everyone originally said they were going to go to both, but you know how people are, they go to the closest event,' explained McRoberts. 'So maybe they went to the closest one, but it wasn't the best one.'

The absence of big departments like Delta and Edmonton put much of the focus on the local squads, with five full teams from the Whitehorse area taking part in the relay and a few more individuals joining forces with Outside competitors.

While Whitehorse's number one combat challenge team dominated the competition, many of the local residents had never competed in such an event before and were impressive in finishing the course.

Alex Vautour, a rookie volunteer with the Whitehorse department, had only been training hard for a month and a half before Saturday, and was originally planning on entering the relay only. But his fellow firefighters talked Vautour into competing in the individual competition as well, which he called 'the hardest thing I've every done in my life.

'Especially (dragging Rescue Randy), because you've got nothing left at that point.'

Asked whether he would do it again, Vautour paused before answering.

'Absolutely. It's really cool to come here because you get to meet all these guys from other places. It's not really a competition. They're all really supportive of one another.'

Like many Whitehorse residents, Saturday also provided Vautour the opportunity to see the territory's number one combat team in action, and they didn't disappoint. Paterson, captain Brian Fedoriak, Barry Blisner, Scott MacFarlane and Glenn Regan finished first in the relay event, posting a time of just under one minute, 13 seconds, about a half second off from their personal best and well ahead of their competitors.

In the individual competition, Fedoriak blew the competition away, finishing the course in one minute and 25 seconds, 15 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Jason Mazurkewich from Grande Prairie.

'I knew that guy was an animal, but wow,' said Vautour. 'All of those guys are something else. I don't think the people in Whitehorse really understand how hard these guys train. They're like professional athletes. This is their sport.'

Paterson said the team was happy with their results, but still felt they could have done better.

'Our real hope was that we can push under a five-minute team time (the combined time of the top three team members). We were about a second and a half over that.

'If we had pushed just a little harder somewhere, we could have done it. But we know where we can do that for next time, that's what the next competition is for.'

While Fedoriak's time of 1:25 equaled a personal best of his from last year, Paterson said everyone knows their captain is still capable of an even faster time. The fact he didn't really have any competition could have had some effect on him, admitted Paterson, because he wasn't really being pushed as much as he would be at a national competition.

'It's always a good motivator when you look out the side of your mask and see the guy beside you or in front of you. But still, a time of 1:25, there's definitely nothing wrong with that.'

While the combat team had originally planned to take some time off from training after the regional competition, they're now set to get right back at it next week, which Paterson said they had a feeling would happen after being pumped up from the success of hosting an event.

'You just can't let it slide,' he said. 'When you're this good, why not just keep going.'

The national combat challenge championships aren't scheduled until September, but the Whitehorse crew may travel to Saskatchewan to compete in a regional event next month. They'll will be meeting over the next couple of days to decided if they have the time and money to travel to Prince Albert.

'There were a couple of guys from Prince Albert here on the weekend and it means a lot to us when guys come that far to support our event,' said Paterson. 'And we would like to reciprocate and show them our support as well.'

Regardless of whether it's in Saskatchewan or at the national championships, Paterson said the team is just looking forward to training hard and setting new personal bests, something he acknowledged wouldn't be possible without the support of the city of Whitehorse.

'To get more support out of this town than we already do would be tough,' he said. 'It's just been so fantastic over the last couple of years.

'Our department is right behind us, too, especially (chief Sparks). I know he's got aspirations of holding a national event up here one day, and when the chief says he's going to do it, we know it's going to happen.'

When asked about the possibility of hosting a national event, McRoberts said it could certainly be a reality in the next few years.

'We'd love to bring the rest of Canada up here,' he said. 'We'd love to talk with the department and see if we could host nationals up here. Whitehorse has everything you need. There's a lot of history up here, so I think to get people to come here wouldn't be any trouble at all.'

And if the amount of spectators that turned out Saturday despite the fact it was a long weekend and most Whitehorse residents were enjoying their time elsewhere is any indication, crowd support for a national event wouldn't be a problem either.

'I've competed at a lot of events around the country,' said Paterson. 'This was by far the best event I've ever been to, and that's nice to be able to say about your home.'