Most — if not all — of the firefighters in Champlain Township, which includes the villages of Vankleek Hill and L’Orignal, and the townships of Longueuil and West Hawkesbury, are volunteers.

Which means they’re either lunatics, or dedicated members of our community who have a need to serve and protect us from some of the most horrific situations we’ll ever face.

At the 169th Vankleek Hill Agricultural Fair, some of these lunatics… dedicated members of our community, gathered with lunatics… firefighters from Ottawa, Embrun and many points between, to test their skills against each other in a “Firefighter Combat Challenge”. Which, lets face it, involved a lot of lunacy.

In full firefighter gear, on a hot afternoon, they ran, climbed, dragged, beat on steel bars with sledgehammers, pulled, rolled tractor tires and ran again. And they had a lot of fun doing it. Which, again, takes a little bit of the mindset of a lunatic.

Of all of the subjects I take photos of here in Vankleek Hill, these people are my favourite.

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…we have a Vankleek Hill Amateur Photo Club now, this is our Facebook Page: [Link]. I think it’s pretty cool…

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