Today, hundreds of first responders from all over Virginia came together at the SunTrust building in downtown Richmond, for the 5th annual Stair Climb, honoring our fallen heroes killed in the 9/11 terror attacks.
Fourteen years ago, 343 brave firefighters lost their lives rescuing people trapped in the World Trade Center, in the worst terrorist attack ever to be carried out on US soil. Today’s fifth annual Stair Climb honors that sacrifice as they tried relentlessly to reach the top floor.
“It gives you just a little taste of what they went through in that stairwell.”, says Lieutenant Michael Oprandy of the Richmond Fire Department.
Richmond Fire Chief Robert Creecy “For all of their families and for so many people in this country, it’s not over, 9/11 will never be over, and that’s what I was thinking about going up those stairs, and I just wanted to go one step at a time, and finish the work they had started.”
Imagine the determination of each firefighter climbing towards the top of 110 stories, all while wearing 50 extra pounds of gear.
Sadly, It would not be reached before the building’s collapse.
Lt. Oprandy explains, “All of the climbers take one of these tags up and finish the climb for them. The highest recorded floor that was reached that day was somewhere around the 80th to 84th floor.”
The tags each have one of the fallen firefighter’s picture and name on it.
Of course, none of the buildings here are quite as tall as the Twin Towers were in New York, but to reach that goal Richmond Fire Lt. Sekou Abdus-Sabur says,
“Here in this building, we modified a little into five rounds of 22 floors each, with a little bit of a break in between, taking the elevator down, but we do it five times to catch the 110 stories.”
For our first responders here at home, they say the stair run is the least they could do to honor those who gave the ultimate sacrifice 14 years ago.
“It’s a time for reflection, a time to honor, and a time to never forget. As we say for 9/11, never forget, well this is what never forget means to us.”
