Firefighters climbing for a cure

A team of three Firefighters from the Keizer Fire District traveled to Seattle, Washington on Sunday, March 8, 2015 to participate in the 24th Annual Scott Firefighter Stair Climb. The event is a fund raiser for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and the largest individual firefighter competition in the world. The Keizer team joined 300 fire agencies and 1,711 other firefighters from as far away as Germany and New Zealand in this year’s competition.

The stair climb takes place each year at Columbia Center in Seattle, Washington. At 788 feet in height, it is the tallest building in Seattle and the second tallest building west of the Mississippi river.

Participants in the event wear over 50 lbs of firefighting boots, pants, jackets, gloves, helmet and self-contained breathing equipment in racing up the 69 flights of stairs, or 1,311 steps, to reach the top of the building.

The group participated against other firefighters in their age bracket. The group results were:

Name                    Time (Min./Sec.)                 Place in Age Division              Overall Place

Rachel Brozovich        26:24                                   13 of 28                                  1197

Amber Butler               34:51                                   20 of 24                                  1519

Jeff Gallinger               30:34                                 252 of 278                                1312

The team placed 177th in the 190 team field in the overall team standings with a combined time of 1:31:48.