Before you become a Los Angeles Fire Department firefighter, you’ve got to train, and train hard.
That’s where task-specific exercise training, which simulates actual tasks performed by firefighters, comes in. The Candidate Physical Ability Test, or CPAT, is the minimum requirement for firefighter hopefuls.
1. Stair Climb
If you thought climbing stairs was easy, try doing it with weighted knapsacks on your shoulders for 3 minutes, and without holding on to the rails. The stair climb improves leg power for those moments you might need to race up a building to save a life!
2. Hose Drag
Running with a 50-foot hose slung over your shoulder for 75 feet sounds like a breeze until you realize it’s being held down by tires or cement blocks.
3. Hose Pull
In which you drop to one knee and pull the rope, hand-over-hand, repetitively.
4. Equipment Carry
Each piece of equipment should weigh roughly 30 pounds. You want to be able to pick up the weights and carry them 40 feet, back and forth. Whew.
5. Ladder Rise
Take a 12-foot extension ladder and practice setting it upward, making sure that the ladder does not slide forward or fall.
6. Ladder Extension
OK, second part of the ladder task: Attach a rope to a weight. Place the rope over a horizontal bar eight to 10 feet off the ground before raising and lowering the weight in repetition.
7. Forcible Entry
What else do you do with a 10-pound sledgehammer besides swing it into a target 39 inches off the ground, over and over? The machine beeps when it’s pushed all the way in. This exercise depends on the coordination of your arms, legs and hips.
8. Search
Stop, drop and crawl for at least 70 feet, and make sure you’re crawling low enough not to hit objects three feet above the ground. You’ll navigate through an obstacle course in pitch-black darkness.
9. Rescue
Drag a dummy while moving backwards for 50 feet in eight to 10 repetitions. Your goal is to be able to do this four times with 165 pounds.
Check out the workout that is the fire department’s CPAT below:
Find more information on applying to join the LAFD at joinlafd.org!
