Local Firefighters Honor the Fallen During 6th Annual 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb

SAN ANGELO, TX - Many events across Texas honor the men and women whose lives were taken during the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. One of these very special events takes place several hours away from San Angelo, in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Since 2010, the Renaissance Tower has been hosting the annual 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb where “hundreds of first responders and the community come together for an intensely physical and symbolic remembrance.” This year, on the 15^th anniversary of the terrorist attacks, the event was the biggest yet.  

On the early morning of September 10, the Sixth Annual Dallas 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb kicked off: 343 firefighters, 70 police officers, 9 paramedic/EMTs from across the nation, each of them assigned to represent one of the fallen first responders, stood waiting at the bottom of the stairs, ready to embark on a climb that would take them up 110 flights. Among those men, loaded with about 50 pounds of gear, ready to climb up the stairs, were also members of the San Angelo Fire Department; Battalion Chief Fred Barnett and Larry Russell, a paramedic for Fire Station 5, were in attendance, along with five other members of the San Angelo Fire Department and the Grape Creek Volunteer Fire Department.

The firefighters had applied back in June, hoping to be chosen as participants in the event. The competition is very stiff. According to Battalion Chief Fred Barnett, the spots are filled within a time span of five minutes. Once the men knew they had been selected, they started preparing for the event. The seven San Angeloans took 3-4 months to train themselves for this epic stair climb.

Barnett said he remembers religiously training every day with his wife using a six-story drill tower and the local stadium to emulate the feeling of climbing up a stairwell. Russell approached it differently. He began the training process by simply running stairs, then gradually progressing from a simple tee-shirt and shorts outfit to a full gear fireman uniform two weeks prior to the event.  

The stair climb lasts for about two hours with the participants climbing the Renaissance Tower twice in order to achieve the 110-story goal. Throughout their climb, the participants also stopped for a moment of silence, in remembrance of the second plane’s attack on the South Tower. Then, at the time of “the first tower collapse, everyone sets off their pass alarm,” Fred Barnett said, creating a “pretty unique moment in the building, [as you hear] all the alarms going off and echoing throughout the stairwell.”

Russell underscored that these moments are a very “emotional and humble time [...] as you stop climbing, and you realize there were actual firemen and policemen standing in stairwells, just like we were, when those buildings collapsed, and those guys never had a chance to make it home.” For Larry Russell and the other San Angelo firemen, this was an eye-opening experience. Barnett, recounted that the climb was “physically and mentally extremely challenging, but [once at the top of the staircase], it was all worth it.” 

Both Barnett and Russell have plans to travel to Dallas next year to participate in the 7^th Annual 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb, which will be hosted on September 9, 2017.