St. George Fire Department to hold stair climb remembering 25 years since attacks on 9/11

ST. GEORGE — Deputy Chief Brad Esplin of the St. George Fire Department remembers where he was when tragedy struck the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001.

"I was newly married in an apartment getting ready to go to school," Esplin recalled. "I was in college at the time and I had a class at what was Dixie State College at the time, and I was just getting ready to go to my trigonometry class.

"I watched the second plane hit and then as we were in class, our instructor stopped class and told us about the Pentagon."

Esplin said the experience gave him a lot of respect for the firefighting profession and the sacrifices they make, ultimately leading to a nearly 20-year career in the field. During his time as a firefighter, he said that he, along with other first responders, has made it an annual tradition to climb stairs to remember the heroic firefighters who lost their lives that day.

"Most fire departments or firefighters will do some kind of an event to remember the events that happened on 9/11," he said. "One thing that's common is a lot of firefighters go do some kind of stair climb to remember those 343 firefighters that died at the Twin Towers that day."

With this year marking 25 years since 343 firefighters lost their lives in the terror attack, the St. George Fire Department, in conjunction with the city of St. George, is holding a 9/11 Stair Climb Challenge at the Stairs at Tech Ridge. Currently, there are over 100 registrants, and Esplin says they want to fill all the registration spots, which will cap at around 350.

"It's not just for firefighters and first responders," he said. "We want the community to come climb with us just so that we can have a moment of remembrance together."

The event will run from 8-10 p.m., with the goal of climbing five flights of the Stairs at Tech Ridge, which is equivalent to the 110 flights firefighters climbed in the Twin Towers.

"We don't care if you do half of the lap or an entire lap," he said. "We want people to sign up and just come climb with us."

The challenge costs $20.01 to commemorate the year it happened. Esplin said that even if people can't participate in the challenge, they can watch the event for free.

"If anyone would like to come spectate, we'll have some bleachers up there where people can just hang out with us," he said. "A lot of us take that day as a somber, special day, to where we remember where we were and what happened and those emotions that were felt."

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