This morning the Austin Fire Department climbed 1,368 feet of stairs, the height of the World Trade Center in 2001. For over an hour, participants made their way up and down the Pleasant Valley Tower, located on Pleasant Valley Road, nine times. Numerous firefighters, members of the military, veterans, civilians and people of all ages, set out to finish the climb.

The tradition was started by a class of fire cadets who were led by their fire training instructor, the day after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks with the intention to commemorate the fallen first responders who attempted to rescue civilians from the 110-story building. Twenty-three years later, the Austin Fire Department tradition is the longest running memorial of its kind in the nation.

Prior to the start of the event, Austin Fire Department Lt. Jerry Cohen spoke to the crowd gathered to commemorate the lives lost. Cohen reminded the spectators and individuals planning to climb the stairs of the significance of the climb. Cohen was in the first group of firefighters to climb the stairs in 2001, at 7 a.m., the morning after 9/11.

“I was apart of cadet class 106,” he said. “We were in cadet class on 9/11 so that very next morning we had physical training, and that’s when our training instructor told us to get full gear, get your air packs, get your bundles, which are 50-plus pounds of weight, and we’re gonna finish the climb. So he had us get up there as a group and in solemn silence finish the climb.”

Cohen has been a part of the department since the start of this tradition and has watched it change throughout the years, like in 2023 when it was renamed the Travis Maher Memorial 9/11 Stair Climb.

Travis Maher, a AFD battalion chief, served with the department for 23 years and the Wimberly Fire Rescue for 25. In 2022, Maher passed away from cancer developed 20 years prior due to his work at Ground Zero in 2001. Now, the stair climb is also a reminder of the sacrifice made by one of the Austin Fire Department’s own. Cohen spoke about much of the changes throughout the years and the new meaning it seems to take on every year.

“We have young and old now,” he said. “We have firefighters participating in this that weren’t even born on 9/11. We have a lot of them that were school children during 9/11 and then we have some of the guys like myself who were there as a firefighter during 9/11. We have a generational change and hopefully once I’m gone they’ll continue this memorial to never forget 9/11.”

Like Cohen, AFD assistant chief Andre Delareza has been with the department since the start of the stair climb. Delareza shared that it holds a lot of value for him and brings back, at times, difficult memories.

“This particular event is something that’s very important and lays somber and heavy in my heart,” he said. “I was part of an academy where we do medical ride outs. On that particular day I was in the ER helping the nurses and the doctors there, and we started having people come in, and they were having a lot of anxiety attacks. They were having stress events because of the stress of knowing family members who were in the towers when it started going on. We were in the middle of helping people, so we didn’t know what was going on, so we started watching the TV.”

Delarezas said that the evolution of the stair climb into a significant tradition for the department reflects the department’s core values. Because of this, he hopes the tradition will continue long into the future.

“As the Austin Fire Department we’ve had representation finishing the climb ever since 9/11,” he said. “The job of a firefighter and public safety as a whole is to serve the community, and we serve the community first and foremost, no matter what the expense is. So often we want to set that [expectation] for the newer members and remind the older members as well.” 

Along with many returning participants like Delareza and Cohen, there were relatively new climbers like Station 4 firefighter Natasha Hunt, in her third year with the department, who finished the climb for her first time. 

“It’s emotional,” she said, “but I love the brotherhood of it, everyone coming together, all the different agencies like the Army, Fire, EMS. Just the camaraderie of it, and everyone just being there for each other.” 

Whether it’s their 24th climb or their first, the intent and purpose of the climb remain the same.

“Just remembering our fallen brothers and sisters and not taking any day for granted,” Hunt said. “Wake up with a positive attitude and just be happy to be here and look forward to doing our job. It’s very emotional, it’s very humbling. It’s very eye-opening. We all took an oath to serve and protect even if it means putting our lives on the line.”

Delareza shared that he partakes in a lot of training that includes stair climbing, so for him the task at hand was not unfamiliar. Still today, on Sept. 11, it was different.

“Doing it on 9/11 with this intentionality is a very somber mood,” he said. “It’s not joking around, it’s not getting geared up to go fight the fire. You’re thinking about the people who died trying to do this.”

The tradition is one of remembrance and commemoration, objectives that Cohen embraces 24 years after the attacks took place.

“We’re doing it to never forget,” he said.

This story was originally published on The Shield Online on September 11, 2024.