More than 650 people have signed up to climb 110 flights of stairs inside the Hilton San Diego Bayfront on September 5, each one wearing the badge of a first responder who died on September 11, 2001. The event marks 25 years since the attacks and is the 14th annual edition of San Diego's memorial stair climb, which raises money for a nonprofit that supports local firefighters and their families.
The climb, first reported by FOX 5 San Diego and KUSI News, will take participants through the hotel's stairwell in loops to reach a total of 110 flights, matching the number of flights in the World Trade Center. Each climber can choose to honor one of the 403 first responders who died that day, displaying that person's professional headshot on their climber badge. Registration is open through the event website, and organizers have set a fundraising goal of $120,000, with more than $44,000 already raised as of late August, according to the San Diego Stair Climb event site.
Because the Hilton San Diego Bayfront stands 30 stories and 385 feet tall, per Wikipedia, climbers must loop through the interior stairwell multiple times rather than making a single ascent to hit the full 110-story count that honors the fallen. The opening ceremony is set for shortly after 8 a.m. on September 5, with the San Diego Fire-Rescue chief beginning the climb around 8:46 a.m. — the exact time American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the World Trade Center's North Tower, according to the seed report.
Honor Teams and a Piece of Ground Zero Steel
Other teams will begin climbing in waves according to their registration times, and honor teams will each represent a significant event that happened on 9/11. The top five fundraising teams will be designated as honor teams for the event. Past iterations of the San Diego climb have featured a recovered piece of World Trade Center steel that climbers touch while reciting the name of the fallen responder on their badge, a ritual detailed by CBS 8 San Diego.
The 403 first responders honored on climber badges include 343 New York City Fire Department firefighters, 37 Port Authority Police Department officers, and 23 New York City Police Department officers killed on September 11, 2001, according to the Race Roster event listing. San Diego's climb is part of a tradition that began on September 11, 2005, when five Colorado firefighters climbed 110 flights of stairs in full gear at a downtown Denver high-rise to honor their fallen FDNY colleagues, per the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation.
Funds Aim at Firefighter Health Risks Beyond 2001
Money raised through the climb benefits FirefighterAid, a nonprofit that assists firefighters and their families and promotes awareness of health and safety issues affecting first responders. The organization is managed by the San Diego Fire Relief Association, founded in 1907, which established the benevolent fund in 1990 under the original name The Widows, Orphans, and Distressed Firefighters Fund, according to the San Diego Fire Relief Association.
That mission has grown more urgent as research has piled up on the long-term health toll of firefighting. A landmark study by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health found that U.S. firefighters face a 9% higher risk of being diagnosed with cancer and a 14% higher risk of dying from cancer compared to the general population, according to the CDC. Cancer caused 66% of career firefighter line-of-duty deaths between 2002 and 2019, per International Association of Fire Fighters data cited by the Firefighter Cancer Support Network, making occupational illness the leading cause of death in the modern fire service.
More first responders have died from 9/11-related illnesses such as cancer and chronic respiratory conditions in the 25 years since the attacks than the 403 emergency personnel killed at Ground Zero that day, according to the International Fire & Safety Journal. That toll underscores why FirefighterAid's mission extends well beyond the anniversary itself, focusing on present-day crisis relief and long-term health protections for active and retired firefighters across San Diego County.
How to Register or Watch
Registration fees for the September 5 event follow a tiered schedule that tops out at $90 for public safety personnel and $110 for general adult participants, while spectator admission remains free to the public. Climbers can sign up through the event website ahead of the climb, which organizers describe as a way to remember the 403 lives lost and the 25 years that have followed.
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