Firefighters aim high for Dartmoor tor challenge

Plymouth firefighters will be aiming for the top this summer – of every tor on Dartmoor within seven days.

There are 155 tors marked on the Ordnance survey map and the team will have to walk between 12 and 16 hours per day to reach them all in a week.

The firefighters from Greenbank fire station - Mark Rogers, Kevin Elford, and Nick Williams – will be raising money for St Luke’s Hospice and the Fire Fighters Charity during their Dartmoor Tor Challenge on 3-9 July.

Mark said: “Whilst out walking on Dartmoor one day between shifts we hatched a plan to set ourselves a challenge. We will be aiming to stand on the top of every tor currently marked on the Ordnance survey map.

“To make things even tougher, this has to be accomplished all within the space of seven days. So we have started regularly going out on the Moor to ‘recce’ possible routes whilst building up our fitness.”

Greenbank’s Green Watch, which all three members of the team are part of, helped build a decked area at the hospice’s garden last summer.

Crew Manager Jim Melville said: “The men know they have set themselves a huge target to achieve and they will be tested to their limits, mentally and physically, but they are determined to complete it in the time they have allocated.

“They have shared a fire station together for the last eight years so seven days on Dartmoor should be a walk in the park!”

For more information on the challenge or to give a donation, go to www.dartmoortorchallenge.co.uk