Humboldt Bay Fire Climbs 110 Flights of Stairs to Honor Fallen 9/11 Firefighters

“Today we’re down here at our Chris Kemp training center on Hilfiker Lane, and right now our crews are participating in a 911 memorial stair climb.” Talia Flores, Community Risk Reduction Specialist, Humboldt Bay Fire explained to Redwood News on Wednesday, September 11, 2024.

“As we all know, today is September 11th. 23 years ago, 343 firefighters from FDNY were killed on the terrorist attacks on 911 trying to rescue people from the World Trade Center,” said Tim Citro, Humboldt Bay Fire Chief.  “What our firefighters are doing here today is climbing 110 stories on our training tower in full protective gear, including to simulate what those firefighters did on that day.”

“We currently have four new recruits that are participating in this, along with one truck company and one engine company and one PD participant,” said Flores, “And we just had one of our brand new cadets join us as well.”

After firefighters had completed the stair climb, Dolan Dillon, a Humboldt Bay Firefighter, said “This one took us about an hour,” and added, “This is my third time. I love it. I think it’s a good lesson to learn. It’s good reminder every year, those 343 firefighters had to work at the top.   I got to do this and come back and rest. That’s a good reminder for me.”

“And there’s also events similar to this going on all over the country today,” added Chief Citro. “We also participate in a stair climb in downtown Sacramento in an actual high rise. We have three of our firefighters there right now participating in that, and we’ve been doing that for approximately 15 to 18 years.”

“The only difference there is they get their name plaque,” Flores said, “as you see on the back of some of their turn-outs, you’ll see their last name.  For the Sacramento one, each firefighter will receive a name of a fallen firefighter to place on their turn-out to do the stair climb in honor of them specifically.”

Chief Citro told Redwood News, “It’s our way as the modern fire service to honor those that died on 9/11 23 years ago,”

The participants kept high spirits throughout the climb. As they finished, the sun peaked out through the clouds. The crew loudly exclaimed at the end, “Is this the last one?”  “Yes, sir.”  “Way to finish it out, guys.”