Rafting, in the Fire Fighter Corp, began to develop in 1996 when in Provincial Command to La Spezia, was organized a river rescue championship. During this championship among the various rescue tests on the river Vara, it was also used the raft rubber dinghy. The awareness of Fire Fighters in compete with deep water rescue became more and more evident and before of what would later become river activities, that is cave-alpine river (in Italian S.A.F., acronym for ¿speleo-alpino-fluviale¿), began to form the fists groups of Fire Fighters using raft inflatable rubber dinghy.
This type of rubber dinghy are made with a sturdy fabric able to resist to scrapings of stones, which are normally found in rivers. Unlike from the classical raft inflatable rubber dinghy widely used in boating, these type of boats have a bottom with many holes that allow the water to enter and to exit. The shape of these type of boats is very symmetrical and similar in fore and aft, in fact, in order to recognize the fore it was necessary to observe the direction of the footrests bands, in which the crew locate the soles of its feet in order to make effective paddle without falling into the river. It began clear that the use of these techniques of inland navigation, would be an important evolution in rescue activities, because the increasing number of athletes who practice these discipline also increases the possibility to specific intervention requests.

The development of competitive rafting aspects and the constitution of National Fire Fighters team derived from the awareness to researching in sports activities an effective training for rescue operation in which they are daily involved in case of floodings.
So in 1997, the Provincial Fire Fighters command of Grosseto became the base of the organizer staff of National Fire Fighters Rafting Team and had the valuable collaboration of athletes from various commands, such as Asti, Firenze, Massa Carrara, La Spezia, Pavia and Rome.
The preparation to National Championship began, in which the competition with the others teams, in which are professional or semi-professional athletes, involve important rhythms, which show all the difficulties that the Fire Fighters have, and that, in their own professional activity didn¿t find the time for a right training.
For this reason there was a strong need to grow and develop Fire Fighters¿ basic knowledge and skills. In 1999, with the permission of the old Inspectorate for Emergency, some athletes participated to the first inland waterways rescue training, taking place in Dimaro, on the Noce river, in Val di Sole (TN). Here, for a week, firefighters had the possibility of working with river professionals, on a very demanding river, with a high river level due to heavy rain and the glacier melt in high altitude. At the end to this training the athletes obtained the W.S.R. (acronym for Wind Snow and Rock) river rescue patent.
This experience increased the enthusiasm of the team and so positions in rankings of National Championship organized by the Italian Rafting Association slowly began to make progress.
In 1999, some athletes from Fire Fighters commands of Grosseto and Massa Carrara, always with the permission of the Inspectorate for Emergency, make a specialized course for raft drivers at the school for river activities in Dimaro, Val di Sole. Here, for a week, Fire Fighters learned advanced techniques in raft driving, on very demanding rivers corresponding to 4th and 5th degrees of difficulty, and then they obtained the advanced river rescue patent.
The participation to the Nationals rafting championships continued and Fire Fighters team frequently stood on the podium.
Among the difficulties noticed during sports events, there was also the number of athletes on board raft. In a normal raft driving for Institutional Activities, where it is necessary to give priority to the precision of trajectories in respect to speed, the number of athletes is usually odd.
In the normal Fire Fighters crew, there is a driver that stood in the aft of raft who must to rectify the trajectories instead to the best ones and so he doesn¿t take part to the propulsion.
On the contrary, in sports crews, where there is a strong harmony among the athletes and each one knows what¿s the best trajectory, in order to increase speed, the number of athletes is even, typically 6. Everyone makes paddle for propulsion, as well as for correcting the route.
So the establishment of even crews starts, without the only central guide, whose establishment is efficient only in the cases in which there are athletes with an important rivers experiences with the kajak, in which they are able to find the right harmony in few trainings.
The composition of the crew starts to see the athletes alternation and the participation of athletes from Command of Pisa and Lucca.
The activity was particularly hard for different reason, that is rivers with high volume where it is possible to organize national rafting championships were far away from Toscana, the travels to reach Vipiteno (BZ), Scalea (CS), or Scopello (VC), where there¿re respectively Isarco, Lao and Sesia rivers are long and the same membership Commands of athletes weren¿t always able to dispense them from their duty¿s shifts.
The sports permits issued from the Sports Activities Office were sensibly limited to the calendar of competitions and the modest financial resources for the team management didn¿t allow to stay in hotels, so the athletes were hosted in the Fire Fighters¿ operative structures, often several miles away from the location where competitions took place.

 The crews¿ organization became always more difficult due to staff deficiency in the Provincial Commands and the trainings became exceptional events.

In order to encourage the athletes training in pairs or individually, single or double place raft rubber dinghy were used, in order to come down streams without the full team.
The full training of the team is usually done before the contest, with the free practice tests before the official start.
Despite these difficulties the team, thanks to the individual trainings for the athletes, many of whom come from the experiences of kajak river, achieve almost always to arrive at the podium.
During the period between 1999 and 2007, in several contests the National Fire Fighters Rafting Team has almost always finished to the 3rd place, preceded by the European Champions of Vipiteno (BZ) which have repeatedly represented Italy at the European Championships and World Championships, and by Valtellina crew composed by guides who also organize trade down.
The Italian Championship of 2005 was very hardly in fact in the official contests was included a piece of Isarco river (BZ) with difficulty 4 and 5.
The federation and various crews have esteemed the helpfulness of National Fire Fighters Rafting team to work with enthusiasm in order to give all athletes more safety conditions, even in those places where rivers are particularly hazardous.
In the years 2006 and 2007 the crew was integrated with the duty¿s staff to the Fire Fighters Command of Arezzo, where was transferred the base of Fire Fighters Representative in early 2009.
These athletes have been included as the second team in the Italian Championship, where have completed all the test in program and where can be done the necessary experience on the demanding rivers in order to can be included in the first team in a short-time.

 
To view all news pertaining to:
 
- Rafting
- National Fire Fighters Rafting Representative
- Organization chart of National Team