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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — One by one, they climbed the stairs.
Each step was symbolic, and each one was made in remembrance of the first responders who lost their lives in the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
In total, those that gathered at Al Lang Stadium Wednesday morning took 2,200 steps, or 110 stories, which is the amount of stairs first responders took when they ran into the World Trade Center on 9/11. It’s one of the most enduring images from that day — while people ran out of the buildings, first responders ran into them.
“They knew they were running into danger,” Pinellas County Commissioner Brian Scott said. “They weren’t expecting not to come home.”
Of the more than 200 participants in the Rowdies event, several firefighters from all over the Bay area climbed the stairs, and some did it in their full gear, just like the firefighters who ran into the World Trade Center
“I have all the respect in the world for these guys who are in their full gear doing this today,” Scott said. “And I can only imagine what it was like going up the stairs in the World Trade Center as people are going the other way. As they’re running toward danger and smoke and dust, and God knows what else.”
Many people still remember where they were on Sept. 11, 2001. Coast Guard Capt. Michael Kahle was in a leadership class when the first plane hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center. When the second hit, he said he knew the country was under attack.
Kahle said that fear soon subsided and was replaced with pride in how the country unified, just like those that paid their respects in steps at the Rowdies stadium.
“Being here on 9/11, doing this, it really does reignite that sense of singularity for the American public,” Kahle said. “We came together at the time, amongst that tragedy, and it really is a vivid reminder of what it means to live in America and the sacrifices that people make every day — our first responders and the military — to preserve this.”
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Katherine Smith
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