This year, on the anniversary of the attacks on Sept. 11, firefighters once again donned full gear and mounted 110 steps to memorialize the first responders who fell on that terrible day.
In what has become an annual tradition since its beginning in 2005, firefighters across the nation participated in the 110-step memorial to honor the 343 firefighters who lost their lives on duty. The 110 steps are said to symbolize the distance firemen and paramedics walked to come to the aid of people suffering from the terror attacks in the World Trade Center towers on September 11, 2001.
Groups of firefighters mounted their tribute in stadiums, skyscrapers, and even on StairMasters to signal their support for the actions taken by the heroes that day, Fox 13 reported.
One group of firefighters in Georgia, for instance, performed their solemn memorial at a Planet Fitness workout center, according to a gym member who wrote about the incident on Facebook.
“They started at 8:46 a.m. Two firefighters at my gym walking all 110 stories of the World Trade Center and back down in remembrance of 9/11 and to honor all the fallen heroes,” Fitness buff Chelsea Renee Farmer wrote on her Facebook page.
As Fox 13 added:
In Vermont, a group of firefighters climbed the stairs at a parking garage at the Burlington International Airport 18 times.
In Denver, firefighters and first responders walked up and down the stairs at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre nine times.
And in Sacramento, California, first responders climbed the stairs at the Renaissance Tower Building, which has the same number of stairs that the World Trade Center towers had.
Once at the end of their 110 steps, the firefighters then gather to remember the names of all 343 first responders who died during the attacks by Islamist extremists that ultimately claimed some 3,000 total American lives.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.