Firefighters Remember 24th Anniversary of 9/11 with Stair Walk

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn (WDEF) — Members of the Chattanooga community are making sure the memory of the firefighters who lost their lives on September 11th, 2001 stay with us.

Every year, firefighters, volunteers, and other members of the community participate in the Chattanooga 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb.

Chattanooga firefighter, Thomas Clark said, “It means a lot for us as a fire service, for us as a community. For.. across the country. It’s important to keep those names, especially as the years go on. You’ve got more and more people who probably don’t even know what happened, or haven’t even learned about it, so it’s important for us to keep that alive every year. It’s the equivalent of 110 flights, which is how many flights they climbed trying to save people that day. And so it will go up and down the bleachers there at the stadium. And just.. It’s usually three goes around the stadium. Takes most people about an hour, an hour and a half.”

Each step is in remembrance of a first responder who perished working to save lives in the twin towers.

Many Chattanoogans were just in elementary school when the attacks happened. Many were not even born. That doesn’t stop them from participating in this act of remembrance and honor.

Chattanooga Firefighter Thomas Clark told us, “Yeah, I remember. I was actually in keyboarding class in ninth grade. I remember they shut everything down and turned the TVs on. We ended going… you know, at that age you’re thinking ‘oh cool, we get to go home early’. Then after, growing up and actually ending up in this field it kinda.. It hits you hard when you just sit and think about it.”

This year’s event will be at AT&T field on Saturday, September 13th. Registration starts at 7:00AM, and the climb starts at 9:00AM, roughly the time the first tower was hit.