NEW ORLEANS– It has been 17 years since the horrible September 11th terrorist attacks on American soil.
Today in New Orleans local firefighters are honoring and remembering all the first responders killed in the World Trade Center Twin Towers in 2001 in New York City.
WGNO’s Kenny Lopez has the story.
Firefighters from all over including right here in New Orleans felt unimaginable grief for their fellow firefighters. Neil Navarro with the Jefferson Parish Fire Department is one of those firefighters who will never forget.
“When someone perishes in a horrific and tragic way, we all feel it. It hits home,” he said.
Along with Neil several other local firefighters are honoring those who died on September 11th with a special stair climb at 400 Poydras Tower. Today was actually a practice stair climb for their major stair climb which will take place on Saturday morning.
“This year we will have 411 firefighters climbing the stairs because that’s the number of first responders who perished on September 11th. We will have firefighters from 11 states and 4 countries,” Navarro said.
These firefighters will climb the stairs wearing all their heavy gear.
“As you can see I’m fully bunkered out. I’m wearing about 30 to 40 pounds of gear,” Navarro said.
Every firefighter will also wear a card and picture around their neck of one of the first responders to honor that hero.
“We know they’d be here with us right now doing what we are doing if they could. It is a true brotherhood. You know thinking about September 11th there is still a part of you that it makes your hair on the back of your neck stand up and you get the chills. You really never know when the tone goes off, when it could be our day,” he said.
The actual stair climb will take place at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday at 400 Poydras Tower. Afterwards there will be a “Brotherhood Bash” in Lafayette Square.
There will be a cook-off, and Bag of Donuts will perform. This is a family-friendly event and open to the public.
