Ten Isle of Man firefighters will aim to scale the equivalent of the Empire State Building once every 58 minutes as part of a record-breaking challenge next week.
The team from the IoM Fire and Rescue Service is bidding to earn a place in the Guinness Book of Records by tackling a 24-hour ladder climb on July 13-14.
As well as trying to surpass the current world best of 109.56 kilometres, set in 2005 by a group of New Zealand firefighters, the local officers are hoping to raise thousands of pounds for charity.
The record bid will take place on a specially erected tower outside the Isle of Man Post Office in Regent Street, Douglas, starting at 3pm on Friday, July 13.
The Island firefighters will attempt the epic challenge wearing kit supplied by Turner’s Intersport of Douglas. The eye-catching red tops feature the logos of the team’s five nominated charities - Pumps 4 Kids, Rebecca House Children’s Hospice, Craig’s Heartstrong Foundation, Help for Heroes and the Hyperbaric Chamber.
The firefighters have been training for the event for the past three months on a tower constructed by local company Red Scaffolding at the old prison on Victoria Road.
They received a morale-boosting visit from road racing stars John McGuinness and Michael Rutter during the TT Festival, and are urging members of public to get behind them on the 13th and 14th.
During the challenge, the 10 firefighters will scale a 15-metre ladder at regular intervals and slide back down a metal pole before repeating the process many, many times.
To put the record attempt into perspective, each team member will have to climb the equivalent of the Eiffel Tower (324m) every 42 minutes, Empire State Building (443m) every 58 minutes, Snaefell (621m) every 1 hour 21 minutes and Ben Nevis (1,344m) every 2 hours 55 minutes, in order to achieve their combined target of 110,400m.
Firefighter Gary Kirby said: ‘The team has been working hard to prepare for this challenge and it would be fantastic for the Isle of Man Fire and Rescue Service to feature in the Guinness Book of Records. We’ve had great support from local companies and I’d like to thank Charlie Turner at Intersport for providing the kit for our record attempt. We want to raise as much money as possible for our five nominated charities and hope that people will come along on the Friday and Saturday to cheer us on and donate to what are some very worthy causes.’
Local businesses can sponsor banners that will displayed on the scaffolding tower used during the event. The costs are £1,000 for a large banner, £500 medium and £250 small.
People can also donate via the website http://ladder24.im/.
For further details about the record attempt and sponsorship opportunities contact Lisa Garrett on 647304 or email lisa.garrett@gov.im.
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