Firefighters’ rope-bridge competition held in Tokyo

The Yomiuri Shimbun
Firefighters compete in the rope-bridge race

Firefighters compete in the rope-bridge race at the 50th National Rescue Meet, an event held Friday in Tachikawa, Tokyo, that drew the top firefighters in the nation featuring various techniques used in rescue operations. The event was held for the first time in three years, and drew about 930 highly skilled firefighters who had made it through the qualifying rounds. The rope-bridge race, one of 14 events on the program, involved going back and forth across a 23-meter rope. In the crawl rescue race, the teams quickly effect a rescue of a person at the end of a tunnel using a rope. The speedy and precise deeds drew hearty applause from the crowd.