Firefighters climb stairs of Epic Center to honor those killed on Sept. 11 (+video)

Zach Golemboski of Colby was in high school when terrorists attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. It’s one of the reasons he became a firefighter six years ago.

On Sept. 11 this year, he and his wife and three young daughters drove five hours to Wichita so that Golemboski could climb 110 floors – the number of floors of the World Trade Center – to honor the firefighters who died in the terrorist attacks 14 years ago.

The Wichita 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb, one of many across the country that have been going on for years but the first for Wichita, happened on Saturday, the day after this year’s 9/11 anniversary. Two hundred firefighters from 45 departments, mostly in Kansas but representing at least one from Missouri, made the ascent.

“It’s a good memorial. I’ve wanted to do it for quite a while, but they always fill up so quickly,” Golemboski said of other climbs in the area, such as in Kansas City and Oklahoma City. “So I thought why not be part of the first one in Kansas?

“It’s one of the ways to repay all those who gave it all.”

Golemboski had trained by running up and down the stairs of his fire station. Over and over and over again. Some of the Wichita firefighters had run the stairs at WSU’s Cessna Stadium.

The participants, wearing full gear including helmets on their heads and air packs on their backs, walked into the Epic Center through an honor guard of American flags to the solemn strains of bagpipe and drum.

Each firefighter wore a badge bearing the name and photo of at least one firefighter who died on 9/11.

Teams of six or so firefighters – young and old, male and female, paid and volunteer – headed up the stairs of Kansas’ tallest building at five-minute intervals, climbing 20 floors five times, riding down the elevator in between, before making a final 10-floor ascent. A slab of steel from Ground Zero sat alongside the stairwell, and the participants touched it before heading up.

“OK, guys,” firefighter Wade Holle told the teams as they prepared for their ascent. “Take care of each other.” The climb was not a race, Holle said. The 9/11 responders “went into the World Trade Center as a crew, and they stayed together.”

Pittsburg firefighters were part of a team with Parsons firefighters. William Holt of Pittsburg carried an ax and iron bar on his shoulder as he prepared to go up the stairs. He said he had the honor of climbing in memory of Paul Tegtmeier, who can be seen on video going into the World Trade Center on 9/11 carrying a set of irons.

Family and co-workers gathered to support the participants.

“There he is!” they hollered when they caught sight of their loved ones climbing the stairs on closed-circuit TVs set up in the atrium.

“Watch for Daddy!” Cara Hattrup told her 4-year-old son, Carter, as they waited behind a cordon outside the elevators for the firefighters to descend.

“Daddy!” Carter yelled out when his father, John, stepped off the elevator along with other firefighters at the end of their climb, and Daddy smiled and waved to the boy.

Renee Nolan-Riley was among the spectators. Her husband Daniel R. Nolan was one of the firefighters who died on 9/11 responding to the World Trade Center, and she subsequently moved to Wichita. Her pastor, Gene Carlson of Pathway Church, read a statement from her during a ceremony outside the Epic Center before the climb.

“I believe God made firemen, policemen and military with a DNA gene called bravery,” Carlson read in Nolan-Riley’s name. “The ability to go into danger instead of running from it proves they obtain that bravery gene. To all the rest of us, they are true heroes. …

“Thank you for climbing into danger to rescue people you do not even know while you have loved ones at home waiting and depending on you. Thank you for never forgetting your brave brothers and sisters who gave their lives in the call of duty. Thank you for reaching out to the loved ones left to mourn loss.”

The first team to finish the climb did it in an hour and eight minutes, though the time didn’t matter. “We started as a group and we finished as a group,” said Wichita firefighter Jason North, who was part of the team. “It’s taxing. It’s hot more than anything, because the gear keeps in the heat.” Photos of the deceased firefighters and pictures drawn by children in the stairwells spurred the climbers on, he said.

At the end of the climb, the participants rang a bell and announced the names of the deceased firefighters in whose memory they climbed, until all 343 firefighters who died responding to the World Trade Center on 9/11 were remembered.

The firefighters paid $40 to register for the event, and some raised money beyond that. Any money left over after expenses is to go the FDNY Fire Family Transport Foundation, which transports firefighters and their families to medical appointments and provides other support.

For more information about the climb, see the website www.wichitastairclimb.com.

This story was originally published September 12, 2015 at 5:04 PM with the headline "Firefighters climb stairs of Epic Center to honor those killed on Sept. 11 (+video)."