AFA, Springs firefighters a formidable duo at combat challenge

Think the fire service is a man’s world?

Tell it to Air Force Academy firefighter Jessica Morehouse and Colorado Springs firefighter Stacy Billapando — if you can catch up.

The pair teamed up in Las Vegas this week to dominate the tandem women’s relay in the Scott World Combat Firefighter Challenge XVIII, an international contest that pits some of the world’s finest, fittest firefighters on a range of timed trials that simulate the rigors of firefighting.

At Friday’s finals, the women traded off lugging fire hose, running stairs and hauling a 175-pound dummy for a top-place finish of just more than 2 minutes — within seconds of breaking their own world record, set Monday at an earlier round of the contest.

Billapando, 46, is the top-ranked woman’s competitor in the nation.  Airman 1st Class Morehouse, 21, is a rookie with about a year on the Air Force Academy’s 80-member fire department.

The women train together at the Air Force Academy, which keeps its training facilities open to Colorado Springs firefighters. For Billapando, the competition is a chance to show that women can attack fires with the best of them.

“As a female, I know that I have to be a little bit better than maybe you think you should be, because we’re always under the gun,” she said.

Morehouse, still new to firefighting, was just soaking it all in.

“It’s cool to come out, represent my department and do well,” she said.