Firefighters, weighted down with more than 60 pounds of safety gear, led nearly 500 people up and down stairs last Sunday. Amid the thump of footsteps and heavy breathing came a 25-year-old harrowing emergency call.
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“Send every available ambulance, everything you’ve got, to the World Trade Center, now!” a voice echoed as a recording of New York City firefighters responding to the Sept. 11 attacks played over the speakers.
The fourth annual 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb at the Enmarket Arena marked the anniversary of the terror attacks that a quarter of a century ago sparked devastating loss and a fundamental change in American life.
Organized by the Savannah Professional Firefighters Association, the ordeal of climbing 110 flights of stairs was a remembrance of the 2,977 people killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, including 343 New York City firefighters.
For firefighter and event co-founder Tyler Barrett, the climb is also personal. Barrett was living in New York when the attacks occurred.
“I remember it like it was yesterday. Everybody knew somebody,” Barrett said. “Being able to come out here and climb shows the families and loved ones who lost people during 9/11 that we’re going to continue to remember and carry on their legacy.”
Her father, Glenn Carlson, knows that legacy in a different way.
“People don’t realize the impacts 25 years later,” Carlson said. “They’re still ongoing. With the health issues and cancer, many people are still sick, both civilians and first responders, as a result of the dust.”
In 2001, Carlson was working as a police officer in a New York City suburb. After the towers fell, he was brought into Lower Manhattan to provide security near Ground Zero.
“It was like going to work in a war zone, which is the best way I can describe it,” Carlson said. “We didn’t know what to expect.”
Inspired by their bravery, Carlson later became a firefighter himself. After retiring, he moved to Savannah and joined the Savannah Fire Department.
Standing with his daughter at Enmarket Arena during the memorial, he reflected of the sacrifices made by his colleagues.
“Events like today are important because we have to keep the memories alive of all the sacrifices that were made, both by first responders and civilians, on this tragic day in our nation’s history,” Carlson said.
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