{"id":16571,"date":"2025-09-12T18:56:33","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T18:56:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/first-responders-mark-9-11-by-climbing-110-flights-at-lewis-arriola-station\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:58:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:58:37","slug":"first-responders-mark-9-11-by-climbing-110-flights-at-lewis-arriola-station","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/first-responders-mark-9-11-by-climbing-110-flights-at-lewis-arriola-station\/","title":{"rendered":"First responders mark 9\/11 by climbing 110 flights at Lewis-Arriola station"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
The sun sets behind the training tower at the Lewis-Arriola on Sept. 11 before participants of the 9\/11 memorial walk embark on their steps at the fire station. (Benjamin Rubin\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Though the evening is solemn, country music, light conversation and children playing fill the air, punctuated by the huffing and puffing of firefighters from across Montezuma County.<\/p>\n

On Thursday evening, Sept. 11, families and first responders gathered at the Lewis-Arriola main fire station to honor those who died in the line of duty during the 2001 World Trade Center terrorist attacks.<\/p>\n

Participants climbed the equivalent of 110 flights of stairs by repeatedly ascending the Lewis-Arriola training tower \u2013 mirroring the number of flights first responders climbed on that historic day more than two decades ago.<\/p>\n

The group typically completes about 53 laps, said Lewis-Arriola Volunteer Fire Department Chief George Deavers, who tracked progress with a tally counter as he sweated through his 30th round.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we do is just a small remembrance for the sacrifice that they made,\u201d Deavers said.<\/p>\n

Nearly 3,000 people were killed<\/a> during the 9\/11 attacks, including 343 firefighters and paramedics and 60 police officers.<\/p>\n

\"Attendees
Attendees begin their ascent of the training tower for the 9\/11 memorial stair climb on Sept. 11, 2025. (Benjamin Rubin\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Three generations of volunteers have served at the Lewis-Arriola Volunteer Fire Department since its founding in the 1980s, said Doug Muscanell, a longtime volunteer who now sits on the station\u2019s board.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir grandfather, their father was on it, now the kids (who) are in their 20s are on there,\u201d Muscanell said.<\/p>\n

Many of the volunteer firefighters pacing themselves through the laps that night \u2013 most in full gear \u2013 were visibly younger. Some may not have been alive when the Twin Towers fell.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s memorial drew first responders from Pleasant View, Cortez, Mancos and Dolores, said Cassie Robinson, an EMS captain and firefighter EMT with the Lewis-Arriola Fire Department.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an emotional day for the community,\u201d Robinson said. \u201cIt\u2019s empowering to see so many different agencies come together to memorialize the people that were lost.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

marks the 10th since the event was first held at the station<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16572,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-16571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16571"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20274,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16571\/revisions\/20274"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16571"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}