When aspiring firefighters arrive at Kettering Health Yankee Medical Imaging to complete the Firefighter Mile, they’re met with a series of physical challenges designed to mirror the realities of the job. Candidates climb stairs carrying weighted equipment, pull hoses around obstacles, haul tools and drag rescue dummies, all while racing against the clock.
For Rex Carpenter, an advanced exercise physiologist with Kettering Health, making sure those candidates are evaluated through a consistent, job-related and reliable process has become a passion.
Since March 2022, Carpenter and his team have administered more than 2,000 Firefighter Mile tests, helping departments across Ohio evaluate prospective firefighters. Candidates have traveled from eight states and communities across Ohio to complete the assessment.
“We’ve had people from eight different states and basically from every county, city and township in Ohio,” Carpenter said. “They just come from all over.”
Carpenter’s background is rooted in strength and conditioning. During nine years with Kettering Health, he has worked with athletes at area high schools and colleges, helping them improve performance while teaching proper training techniques and movement mechanics.
His work with firefighter testing began in 2019, when he started administering an earlier physical abilities assessment used by local fire departments. As he gained experience, Carpenter saw opportunities to improve the process and better reflect the demands firefighters face on the job. After moving operations to Yankee Medical Imaging in 2022, he helped transition the program to the Firefighter Mile, a standardized assessment designed to better reflect those demands.
“I’ve just really dove into it the last four or five years and found a passion for it,” Carpenter said.
While firefighter testing is a major focus of his work, Carpenter has also worked with law enforcement agencies, including developing a police physical abilities test that has been used by several departments in the region.
Carpenter often compares the Firefighter Mile to a combine for firefighters. The assessment includes 10 events that test strength, endurance and the ability to perform job-specific tasks. Candidates climb stairs with 80 pounds on their back, drag hoses around obstacles, haul equipment and finish by dragging a 165-pound dummy after completing the other events on the course.
“A lot of people think they can just walk in and do it,” Carpenter said. “This is not easy.”
As the program has grown, Carpenter has focused on ensuring every candidate is measured against the same standard. Equipment is routinely calibrated and measured to ensure candidates face the same challenge every time, from dummy drags to equipment pulls. Testing procedures are carefully followed, and each participant receives the same instructions and scoring criteria.
“It’s very important to have a standardized procedure,” Carpenter said. “If someone doesn’t pass this, that’s it. They don’t get the job.”
That commitment to consistency has helped the program expand far beyond the Dayton area. What once served primarily local departments now attracts candidates from across Ohio and neighboring states, while providing departments with a standardized way to assess physical readiness.
Looking ahead, Carpenter hopes to continue advancing first responder testing. His goals include expanding use of the Firefighter Mile, encouraging more departments to consider recurring physical assessments and continuing conversations about physical ability testing standards for police officers and firefighters.
“My goal now is to work on it being an annual exam for at least some of the local departments and then kind of work from there,” Carpenter said. “The Firefighter Mile being a national thing is another one.”
Carpenter knows those goals won’t happen overnight.
“I’ve put in four or five years on this stuff and it’s just now where I’m starting to get more relationships, more people calling me, more people asking about it,” he said. “It’s just that gradual effort over time.”
