12-week training program
Red Deer Polytechnic FPAT 12-Week Program
Know the test
Who uses this test
Red Deer Polytechnic runs this test as a third party at the Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre in Red Deer, and its own page lists the departments it tests for: Red Deer Emergency Services (which also lets candidates test at the University of Alberta instead, at whichever site they prefer), Spruce Grove Fire Services, Lethbridge Fire and Emergency Services, and the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, which serves Fort McMurray. Airdrie accepts the RDP test as one of three options alongside the University of Alberta evaluation and the CPAT, valid for 12 months. One naming warning: Ontario's OFAI also calls its circuit the FPAT, and the two tests share nothing but the initials. Departments change tests between intakes, so the posting always governs.
Related to the U of A test, but not the same test
RDP states its testing materials were derived from those originally developed by the University of Alberta's Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation, then adapted independently with Red Deer Emergency Services, and that significant differences exist between the protocols and cut scores, so the two evaluations cannot be considered equivalent. Treat that literally: if your posting names the University of Alberta evaluation, use our U of A program, because the events and standards differ even where they look similar. The biggest practical difference is the aerobic test: the U of A evaluation is built around a loaded treadmill walk in gear, while RDP's is an unloaded running ramp in athletic wear with a hard time line.
The shape of the day
Plan for about three and a half hours. The day opens with the treadmill test in running shoes and athletic attire, followed by a mandatory 30-minute rest that includes a roughly 20-minute standardized walk-through of every job station, which doubles as your warm-up and your only practice. Then the six job stations run in sequence wearing a 45-pound weighted vest plus a fall-arrest harness, helmet, and gloves, with exactly 90 seconds of rest between stations. You stay in the testing area with the PPE on for the whole sequence. Every station has a published time limit, every station takes maximal effort, and you must pass all of them to pass the test. You get a printed summary on the spot and official results go directly to your department.
The Girkin ramp: a published table with a hard line
The aerobic test is the Girkin Treadmill Evaluation, a VO2 max protocol done wearing a face mask that collects your expired air with your nose plugged, which is its own sensation worth knowing about in advance. You warm up for three minutes at 3.0 mph, then the ramp begins at 4.5 mph and zero percent grade and climbs in alternating steps every minute: 4.5 mph at 2 percent, 5.0 at 2, 5.0 at 4, 5.5 at 4, 5.5 at 6, 6.0 at 6, 6.0 at 8, 6.5 at 8, 6.5 at 10, and onward toward 8.5 mph at 16 percent for whoever survives that long. The minimum time to pass is 12 minutes 30 seconds, which means surviving into the 6.5 mph at 10 percent stage. Because the whole table is published, this program rehearses it directly: you will know your ramp time before test day, not discover it there.
Stations 1 to 3: carry, advance, pull
Station 1 is the equipment carry, 135 seconds: a scripted sequence of lifting, carrying, and placing 20 kg implements over 7.6 and 15 metre legs, one at a time and two at once, on and off platforms set 1.0 metre high, finishing with both implements carried together back to the start. It is a grip, hinge, and precision task as much as a strength task, because every placement must be safe and controlled. Station 2 is the charged hose advance, 27 seconds: shoulder a nozzle attached to three lengths of weighted 44 mm hose and advance it 30 metres walking as fast as possible, running not permitted. Station 3 is the weighted sled pull, 120 seconds: straddling a 16 mm rope with your feet planted, pull a weighted sled 15.24 metres hand over hand, walk to it, and repeat until the sled has crossed the line three times.
Stations 4 to 6: strike, rescue, climb
Station 4 is the forcible entry simulation, 19 seconds: strike a mechanically braked target with a 4.5 kg sledgehammer from floor pickup until the buzzer sounds, a pure power-endurance sprint. Station 5 is the victim rescue, 60 seconds: drag a mannequin of roughly 83 kg by a rescue harness through a serpentine cone course, around a turn cone at 15 metres and back, 30 metres in total, and if you or the mannequin touch a cone you restart the station from the beginning, which makes clean cornering a scored skill. Station 6 is the ladder climb, 97 seconds: on a 7.2 metre ladder, climb ten rungs to 3.45 metres with a weight-bearing step on the tenth rung, climb down, and repeat for five full repetitions, always with three points of contact and never skipping a rung. Footwork cadence, not courage, is what the clock measures.
Ninety-second rests change the training
Most Canadian evaluations give you three minutes between stations; RDP gives you exactly 90 seconds, standing, in a 45-pound vest, harness, helmet, and gloves you are not allowed to remove. That is roughly half the recovery on nearly double the vest load of a York-style test, and it is the single biggest reason candidates who trained each event fresh find the back half of this test harder than expected. This program's Build and Peak phases chain stations on 90-second standing rests specifically, so that starting the next effort unrecovered is a rehearsed sensation, and the vest work is heavier than our other programs because 20.4 kg is what the day actually weighs.
What the test day requires of you
Three requirements catch people. First, a medical clearance form signed by your physician is mandatory, and you will not test without it, so book that appointment when you book the test, not the week before. Second, government photo identification is checked at Guest Services on arrival. Third, RDP's own preparation rules: no strenuous exercise for 24 hours before, no alcohol for 24 hours, no caffeine or smoking within two hours, a light meal about three hours out if you test in the morning, and clothing that matches the day, which means shorts, running shoes, two shirts because the first will be soaked after the treadmill, warm layers for the 30-minute rest, a towel and lock, and your own water and simple snacks. Practice your eating and drinking strategy during training, because three-plus hours of intermittent maximal work punishes both the over-fed and the under-fed.
Booking, cost, and results
The test costs 380 dollars and runs at the Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre on Red Deer Polytechnic's main campus. Registration is online at rdpolytech.ca/firetesting, where you create an account and pick a session, with sessions filling first come, first served; questions go to Guest Services at 403 356 5100 or fitness@rdpolytech.ca. Arrive checked in and warmed up, and be at room GWH176, the Sports Performance Lab, five minutes before your start time. Results are forwarded directly to the department you are testing for. Where a validity window applies it is set by the department, not RDP: Airdrie states 12 months, and Red Deer requires the test within its own posting timelines, so read yours.
Equipment, honestly
Every session is written for a full gym and carries substitutions for two leaner setups: minimal equipment, meaning a loadable backpack or duffel, a rope or towel, and household objects, and a stairwell-and-vest setup, meaning stairs plus a weighted vest or pack. The test-specific implements are improvised the way our other programs do it: paired 20 kg dumbbells, jugs, or bags for the equipment carry, a tire or loaded sled on a rope for the sled pull, a duffel built toward 83 kg for the rescue drag, a sledgehammer on a tire where you have one and diagonal chops where you do not, and stair or step-up cadence work standing in for the ladder. The treadmill ramp itself needs only a treadmill with a 10 percent grade, or a long hill and honest pacing where no treadmill exists.
The 12 weeks
Benchmarks
Test yourself every four weeks so peak week holds no surprises.
- Week 4: Ramp familiarization and carry baseline. Two numbers on one day, fresh. First: a submaximal pass at the Girkin table on any treadmill, run exactly as published (3 min at 3.0 mph, then 4.5 mph rising in the alternating speed and grade steps), stopping at a hard-but-controlled 8 of 10 effort rather than your true limit; record the time and stage you reached with control. Second, after 15 minutes of full rest: the 20 kg equipment carry medley, timed, one implement 7.6 m to a 1.0 m shelf and back, then two implements 15 m and up, mirroring the test's sequence at whatever scale your space allows. The ramp number sets your Build-phase targets; the carry time tells you whether grip or precision is the limiter.
- Week 8: Girkin rehearsal and station circuit. Test-day structure, compressed. First: the full Girkin ramp at honest maximal effort, targeting at least 12:30, the published pass line; stop with a decision, not a stumble, and record the time. Then exactly 30 minutes of rest, layered up and moving, like the real day. Then, in a 15 to 18 kg vest, three stations on exactly 90 seconds of rest, each timed: the 20 kg carry medley, 3 x 15 m rope sled pulls, and a 15 m out-and-back serpentine drag at 70 kg. If the ramp came in under 12:30, the Peak phase's engine days are your priority; if a station ran past its test limit, that station is.
- Week 12: Taper rehearsal. A confidence pass, not a test: 8 minutes of the Girkin table ending at a strong-but-controlled stage, then after a 20-minute rest, one crisp touch of each station at about 85 percent in the vest, 90-second rests. Then close the logistics: session booked at rdpolytech.ca/firetesting, the medical clearance form signed by your physician and packed, photo ID, both shirts, layers, towel, lock, water and snacks, and the drive to the Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre planned with a 30-minute buffer. Nothing new on test day.
Companion training app
Train and track it in Semparo Strength
Reading the plan is one thing; running it is another. Semparo Strength is our training app, and every fitness program we build lives inside it. The full A/B five-by-five strength program, custom interval and rest timers, and readiness, sleep, and nutrition logging are free for everyone. Every 12-week test program we publish, Fire Test Foundation, Fire Test Foundation + Swim, CPAT, OFAI FPAT, WFX-FIT, University of Alberta Evaluation, York Firefighter Fitness Assessment, Red Deer Polytechnic FPAT, CFFM FPFE, Gledhill Protocol (Halifax), F.A.R.E., and VO2 Max Builder, unlocks with the Fitness unlock or Semparo Pro, with workout-by-workout tracking and the readiness ring. It runs in the browser and installs to a phone home screen in two taps.
