The 17 emergency service personnel are training for the Melbourne Firefighter Stair Climb, which will bring over 600 firies from across Australia and the world to the Crown Metropol Hotel.

They will race up its 28 floors - consisting of 476 stairs - in what is both a fierce competition and a hugely successful fundraiser.

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The firefighters will wear full protective gear and breathing apparatus, which weighs about 25 kilograms.

Glengarry Brigade chief Liam Cox said he was just aiming to get to the top.

"Personally my plan is just to finish, I'm not going to be competitive," he laughed.

"Because it's for such a good cause, it gives you the motivation.

"One of the members in our team is a personal trainer, so that's been very beneficial as well."

The stair climb aims to raise $700,000 for the Emergency Services Foundation, Lifeline and the Black Dog Institute, with about $188,000 raised so far.

Mr Cox said there wasn't an emergency service worker in the country that didn't either know someone who had struggled with mental illness, or who had experienced it themselves.

"Regardless if you're a volunteer or permanent emergency services personnel, we're all exposed to abnormal events. " he said.

"It affects everybody regardless of what your position is.

"We all know someone who has been affected by a mental health condition, and this is a great way to get involved and support our colleagues if they are ever affected."

Donate to the Northern Tasmanian teams by going to firefighterclimb.org.au/donations/donate/ and entering one of the following participating brigades into the "Donate on behalf of" bar: Glengarry, Frankford, Dilston, Perth, Ravenswood, Lilydale, Prospect, or Nile.

"We've still got a long way to go [to reach the fundraising target],"Mr Cox said. "So please get behind us."

The Melbourne Firefighter Stair Climb is on September 8.

Over its past six years, it has raised $1.8 million for charities.