RICHMOND, Va. — First responders and the Richmond community honored the hundreds of New York City firefighters who died during the attacks on September 11, 2001 with a stair climb at City Stadium Saturday morning.
Steve Korb serves as chief of the Metro Richmond Flying Squad and organized this year’s stair climb.
The squad is a group of volunteers who travel to fires across Central Virginia and provide relief and support to the firefighters battling the flames.
All of the proceeds will go to support the squad and their mission to help local firefighters.
The climb honored the 343 FDNY firefighters who selflessly gave their lives on September 11.
Each participant will pay tribute to a firefighter by climbing the equivalent of the 110 stories of the World Trade Center. That’s about seven full rounds through the City Stadium bleachers.
Korb has participated in the climb in previous years.
“When you want to give up you put yourself in the boots of the firefighters that were there that day. They didn't give up,” he recalled. “They knew they were going into the worst fire that anyone's probably ever seen.”
Korb remembered the attacks 21 years ago vividly. He was a firefighter in Miami Beach that day.
The brother of one of Korb’s fellow firefighters responded to the twin towers that day. Captain James Amato was found in the debris a month after the towers fell.
“There is a name tag for each firefighter that was killed that tragic day. So there's a total of 343 name tags here. We had to go in and make each one and put them all together. It really resonated with me,” Korb explained. “You always hear the number 343 people died. But when you're literally printing and looking in the eyes of each one of these firefighters, and all these bags are full — it’s surreal.”
