DALLAS – 110 floors, 2,160 steps.
“One flight at a time, one flight at a time,” James Fussner, Arlington Fire Department firefighter, told his “brothers” as they ascended the Comerica Bank Tower in Dallas on Saturday, completing the climb 343 fallen firefighters could not during 9/11.
All Fussner could think about was John Bergin, one of the New York City firefighters who died on 9/11. Since 2011, the Dallas 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb annually honors firefighters, police officers and EMS personnel by having first responders climb 110 flights, symbolizing each floor of the World Trade Center’s former twin towers.
Fussner has participated in the climb for 10 years, and each time, he said it’s a humbling experience. He always climbs for Bergin, he said.
“It’s been a personal feeling for me that I need to climb for him,” Fussner said.
Participants carry lanyards with a photo of a fallen hero who died during 9/11. On Sept. 7, their only job was to take them to the top, event director Rodney Smith said, symbolically completing the climb for those who couldn’t.
Fussner was a high school senior when 9/11 happened. He said his history teacher told the students it would be a day they’d remember for the rest of their lives.
The image of the two towers collapsing is engraved in his mind.
“While I’m climbing, I think of each and every one of them,” Fussner said tearfully. “I think of John [Bergin] a lot, and I think of his family a lot, so that keeps me going.”
Matthew Silcox, Bowie Fire Department firefighter, remembers the sacrifice the firefighters made when he was 14 years old. Now, out of honor and admiration, he walks in their footsteps.
“I like to try, just in some way, try to put myself in their shoes, even though it’s not the same thing, but [I] can’t imagine what they must have been feeling,” Silcox said. “Nobody should have to go through that or meet that fate, but they did and they did it courageously.”
Throughout the trek, radio traffic from 9/11 played in the stairwells, placing them in day’s true moments.
Smith remembers telling his wife that the events of 9/11 would be the largest loss of firefighters he would ever see in his career. Among the firefighter that day, a total of 2,977 people died.
“When everyone else is running out of the building, we’re running in. That’s what we do,” Smith, a retired fire chief, said. “Sometimes members pay the ultimate sacrifice and that’s just very overwhelming.”
For Smith, being a firefighter means putting the public before himself.
As climbers reached the 110th floor, a welcoming face appeared. Yearly volunteer Joe Luccioni stood at the top of the stairs fist bumping, patting shoulders and congratulating every single responder who completed their climb.
Luccioni does it to honor his daughter’s fiancé Michael Lynch, a New York City firefighter who died on 9/11.
“My daughter lost her fiancé,” he said. “They were supposed to get married in October of that year, so every year since then, I come here and I help out.”
While Silcox climbed in 2016, this was the first time he did so for someone else. It was a heavy experience to reflect on while he climbed, but being alongside fellow firefighters motivated him to get to the top.
“There’s an accountability attached to it. I got to finish because I’m carrying him,” Silcox said.
As Fussner made it to flight 48, he called Bergin’s wife via FaceTime to complete the climb. Bergin, survived by his wife and three children, has stayed close to Fussner’s heart.
Every firefighter knows why they’re here, he said.
The brotherhood is what it’s all about.
@trinhvchristine
