The first half of today’s title of this article is credited to the fine folks at the Sun Coast Police Benevolent Association, of which the union staff and service members simulated the heroic efforts of first responders, weighted down by duty gear, who unhesitatingly scaled thousands of steps to save lives impacted by cowardly terrorists slamming planes into the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001.
“WE PAY OUR RESPECTS IN SWEAT. Today, in honor of every American who lost their lives on September 11, 2001, we each climbed 2,200 stairs. 48,400 stairs total.
“God bless every man, woman, and child whose life was forever changed on this morning, twenty-three years ago today [September 11, 2024]. Our hearts, and our votes, are also with every surviving first responder who is now fighting cancer and disease as a result of their 9/11 service.
(Photo courtesy of the Sun Coast Police Benevolent Association.)
“Our people run into what others flee. It is our honor to be their Union.” Those are the words posted by the leadership at the Sun Coast PBA, a law enforcement union representing cops in Florida.
For the 4th Annual 9/11 Stair Climb, the SCPBA climb involved police union members/LEOs from various agencies in southwest Florida.
(Photo courtesy of the Sun Coast Police Benevolent Association.)
The current recruit class undergoing training in the Miami Police Department academy in Florida also sweat it out for the fallen, offering brief footage and a photo deck illustrating the class stairclimbing at a local stadium.
More than 1,000 people participated in the annual 911 Memorial Stair Climb in El Paso, Texas, per KFOX 14 News.
“Having a whole community coming together from different organizations — from PD to military — just showing the ultimate sacrifice that our brothers and sisters made that day, it was a great turnout and it’s just beautiful to see that unified command.” Those are the words of Jaqueline Manriquez, an El Paso firefighter whose attendance and sweat on the stairs goes beyond a decade.
On 09/11/01, first responders in New York City “were not thinking about the global scale of the attack, they were only thinking about helping their community, the people trapped in the buildings, and just going into a burning building without knowing if they were ever going to come back — and most of them did not,” said El Paso Fire Department spokesperson Enrique Duenas.
Law enforcement officers, firefighters, and military personnel conducted their climb in remembrance at the Sun Bowl, a jurisdictional venue.
Similarly, members of the Phoenix Police Department (already mourning the line-of-duty death of one of their own) scaled the bleachers in a stadium in their neck of the woods. With full gear and totes of water, each man and woman did the work of climbing the equivalency of stairs as cops and firefighters did on 9/11/01.
On that fateful day, the weight of the world got heavier.
On these stadium steps simulating feats to honor the fallen, the duty-gear weight is exacerbated by the mental baggage that morphed from some American public heralding public safety professionals to denouncing them rabidly. Nevertheless, onward and upward they go!
From a spokesperson: “Phoenix PD gathered with fellow first responders and the community to pay respects at the annual 9/11 Tower Challenge in honor of those who lost their lives on 9/11/2001.
(Photo courtesy of the Desert Diamond Arena.)
“The World Trade Center’s Twin Towers each consisted of 110 floors (2071 steps), and each year thousands of people across Arizona walk, climb, and run the stairs to remember. This includes firefighters in full gear, police, military, and bomb squad personnel alongside civilians of various ages, abilities, and backgrounds.”
I dug into Phoenix PD’s archived pages and discovered heartrending imagery of geared-up first responders participating in previous years’ Tower Challenge, commemorating fallen NYPD, FDNY, and other heroes whose final act of duty was on soil forever referred to as Ground Zero.
(Photo courtesy of the Desert Diamond Arena.)
The stadium seats in that picture are tagged with photographs of both New York City police officers and firefighters who ran in, climbed until they ran out of steps and time, horrifically succumbing to the unspeakable crush of buckled skyscrapers that would, in time, give way to a monumental memorial site.
Taking steps and sweating it out in a different way, Doral, Florida, police Chief Edwin Lopez donned his athletic wear and duty belt, clutched an American flag, and took to the streets.
(Photo courtesy of the Doral Police Department.)
Chief Lopez’s method of remembrance is respectfully reflective of FDNY Firefighter Stephen Siller who on the morning of September 11, 2001, ran from the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, and into lower Manhattan, until he arrived at the Twin Towers.
According to the folks at Tunnel to Towers Foundation, having just finished his tour of duty and headed home while listening to his scanner, Firefighter Siller overheard that a plane just pierced the first Tower and the havoc that ensued immediately:
“Stephen drove his truck to the entrance of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, but it had already been closed for security purposes. Determined to carry out his duty, he strapped 60 lbs. of gear to his back and raced on foot through the tunnel to the Twin Towers, where he gave up his life while saving others.”
The Tunnel to Towers Foundation announced that on Sunday, September 29, 2024, “nearly 40,000 people will participate in the 23rd Annual Tunnel to Towers 5K Run & Walk NYC.
“The 5K course retraces the final footsteps of FDNY Firefighter Stephen Siller on September 11, 2001.” Perhaps Doral Chief Lopez is training for that grand event.
Nowadays, any footage of New York City’s skyline includes the 9/11 Memorial Tower, a construction including two pools where both Twin Towers previously jutted skyward, their respective hulks containing stairwells used by heroes whose patches were emblematic of NYPD and FDNY services.
Since (and because of the tragic event of 9/11/01), the death toll is still chronicled due to health-embattled first responders who somehow managed to survive…only to be seriously affected by inhalations caused by the collapse of the Towers.
Another 9/11-related casualty was recorded mere days ago…
The FDNY Foundation “joins the FDNY in mourning the passing of retired FDNY EMS Lieutenant Anthony S. Cozzino of Station 43, who succumbed to his WTC [World Trade Center] illness on Saturday, September 7, 2024. Lieutenant Cozzino was a 26-year veteran of the department.”
On the Officer Down Memorial Page (ODMP), 19 different classifications denote how law enforcement officers perished in the line of duty—9/11 Related Illness is one of them.
Line-of-duty-deaths listed under the “9/11 Related Illness” category spans 20 pages of entries! That equates to 480 first responders…and climbing.
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