NEWRY — The Newry Fire Department edged out 13 other teams from around New England to take first place in the 23rd Annual Firefighters’ Race at Sunday River. Meanwhile, proceeds from the race, as well as the 21st Annual Eat the Heat Chili Cookoff and the 28th Annual Ski-A-Thon, helped raise more than $330,000 for Maine Adaptive Sports & Recreation.

Newry’s winning time was 38.71 seconds. The margin of victory over second place finishers from the Jay team was only 1.16 seconds; the margin between the second and third place team from Bethel was 1.19 seconds.

Other fire departments who raced today include teams from Livermore Falls, Farmington, Rumford, Rochester, Gorham, Hopkington, Jay, Falmouth, Lewiston and two teams from Auburn.

For the event, teams of five firefighters in full gear raced down a giant slalom course on the Tempest trail toting 50 feet of fire hose. Teams were composed of skiers and snowboarders.

Following the race was the cookoff. This event included chef teams from Sunday River Resort and surrounding Newry and Bethel area and was judged by a panel of media celebrities including Jeff Peterson of WGME, Steve Minich of WMTW, Robert Witkowski of Portland magazine, Lori Voornas of WJBQ, outdoor writer Tim Jones and special guest and Maine Adaptive Sports and Recreation ambassador, Herb Gross.

Judge’s scores combined to award first place to the Shipyard team from Newry. The runner up awards went to the Grid Iron (Hot) team from Lewiston and third place was awarded to Roosters Roadhouse in Bethel.

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