U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo., — Air Force Academy firefighters added more national titles to their collection, at the Firefighter Combat Challenge nationals, Friday in Las Vegas.

The Academy Fire Department took the 2012 national championship in the team category with a finish of four minutes and 55 seconds, and Academy firefighter Bill Gates took the individual championship with a time of one minute, 29 seconds.

This is the first time the Academy Fire Department has won the national title in the open team category and the individual category.

Firefighters compete in the categories of individual, two-person tandems or teams of five to six firefighters.

This year, the Academy Fire Department is fielding teams in the men’s division and men’s over 40 division, as well as tandems and in the individual categories.

To qualify to advance to the world firefighter combat challenge, teams must have three team members finish with a combined time of less than seven minutes.  Individuals, tandems and relay teams can qualify for the world games with a total time of less than two minutes finishing the course.

Each USAFA firefighter at the national competition finished with a time below two minutes. The team consists of Gates, Anthony “Tank” McMurtry, Roy Dalton, Hans Barkley and Steven Rosseau.

Competition continues Saturday in the tandem finals and the relay team seeding round, with the finals of the relay competition on Sunday, where Team USAFA will defend its 2011 national championship.

The Academy Fire Department has competed in this event for 11 of the past 12 years, and won numerous world and national titles along the way, becoming a world power in the event.

The Firefighter Combat Challenge simulates the tasks a firefighter must perform at a working fire in full gear, on a timed course with races won by tenths and sometimes hundreths of a second. The level of physical exertion is so extreme that indviduals can normally only run the course at full strength once per day.

Airman 1st Class Jessica Morehouse drags a rescue dummy backwards across the finish line during a firefighter combat challenge June 27, 2009. Airman Morehouse is a competitor in the 2010 competition Nov. 8-13, 2010, in Myrtle Beach, S.C. (U.S. Air Force photo/Mike Kaplan) Photo by