Columbia County Fire Rescue will be holding a 9/11 remembrance ceremony on Monday, Sept. 11.
The short ceremony will begin at 8:15 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 11 at the Plaza Parking Deck, and will include a presentation of colors, a timeline of events, last call, ringing of the bell and a closing prayer. Deputy Chief Jimmie Paschal said following the ceremony, firefighters will participate in a memorial stair climb.
“The stair climb is to remember the 343 New York firefighters that lost their lives that day,” Paschal said. “We will be doing the stair climb in the parking deck, that’s why we’re having the ceremony there.”
A remembrance ceremony has been held every year since 2002, but this is the first year doing the stair climb, Paschal said. Firefighters participating will either be in full gear or partial gear.
“The parking deck is four stories, and we’re going to do 110 stories, which was the height of the World Trade Center. So in order to get that we’re going to have to go up and down 32 times and it will take an hour or maybe a little longer to do it,” Paschal said.
As for why people should attend, Paschal said it’s important to remember everyone who lost their lives that day, from the firefighters to the people on the planes to the people in the buildings.
“It seems like that as the years go on since that event it’s not as celebrated as much as it was after that,” Paschal said. “We just want to ensure that it continues to go in in remembrance. There are public safety people that are still losing their lives today from that event, there’s been 306 that have lost their lives since then due to 9/11 illnesses, related illnesses.”
The ceremony is free to the public and will take place The Plaza Parking Deck, 7015 Evans Town Center Blvd., Evans.
Stephanie Hill is the managing editor and covers Columbia County government for The Augusta Press. Reach her at stephanie@theaugustapress.com.
