Spokane firefighters climb local stairs for cancer fundraiser after coronavirus threat cancels Seattle event
An American flag blows in the wind outside the downtown Spokane Bank of America Building on Sunday, March 8, 2020. Firefighters from local agencies participated in a fundraising stair climb within after a Seattle event was canceled over fears of spread of the coronavirus. (Nina Culver / The Spokesman-Review)
Word came on Tuesday the 29th annual Firefighter Stairclimb to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society scheduled for Sunday was postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak. On Wednesday, local firefighters got started planning a replacement event.
About 50 firefighters from several local departments climbed 18 floors of the 20-story Bank of America Building in downtown Spokane four times Sunday, replicating the 69 floors they would have climbed at Seattle’s Columbia Tower, where the event was originally scheduled.
Each year local teams spend months training for the event while raising donations for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
“We all trained for this specific event for a while,” said Spokane Fire Department firefighter Joanna Balin, who organized the new event. “We’ve raised funds for this. We’re just improvising as we go. It was something really important.”
It was only natural to hold the event in the Bank of America Building, she said. It’s the tallest building in downtown Spokane and building management already allows firefighters to train in the stairwells year-round.
The firefighters could have just donated the $100,000 they raised locally, but many felt they should still do the stair climb somehow. “We wanted to feel like we earned those donations,” said firefighter Scott Niebuhr of the Spokane Valley Fire Department.
The cause the firefighters are climbing for is also important to them on a personal level. Balin said firefighters have a 9% higher risk of getting certain cancers than the general population and are 14% more likely to die from those cancers.
Her climbing team, Team Knighten, is named after Spokane Fire Department firefighter John Knighten, who died in 2013 of multiple myeloma. The blood cancer is one of several cancers the state recognizes as presumed to be caused by inhaled carcinogens that firefighters are exposed to.
Niebuhr, who also helped organize the replacement stair climb, said five firefighters in his department have died from work-related cancers in the last nine years. Another dozen are in remission or are currently fighting cancer, he said.
Niebuhr said the organizers of the event in Seattle were wary of bringing in hundreds of first responders from all over the state to an area where there have been multiple coronavirus infections and deaths.
“We were pretty disappointed it was postponed, but we understood the reasoning why,” he said.
Balin said she checked with the Spokane County Regional Health District about organizing a stair climb locally and was given the green light. “Currently there’s a low risk of coronavirus in our area,” she said.
The firefighters wore their full gear, including a breathing apparatus and air tank, which weighs between 65 and 75 pounds, during the climb. Meg Williams from Spokane County Fire District 8 was one of the firefighters gearing up in the lobby of the Bank of America Building.
“This is my first,” she said. “I’ve been wanting to do this since I joined the fire service. It’s on the bucket list.”
She had been training for the Seattle event and a coworker told her about the hastily arranged replacement event in Spokane. “It’s a good cause,” she said.
Firefighter Greg Nowak was part of a team of six from Stevens County Fire District 1. “Obviously we’re supposed to be in Seattle, but we’re here instead,” he said.
This was his ninth stair climb, which he was doing in honor of a former coworker, David Wayson, who died of cancer.
“We’ve collected money for the stair climb and we just felt like we needed to complete the task,” Nowak said. “It’s more to honor the people we’re climbing for.”
He said he thought four trips up the stairs would be easier than doing 69 floors in a row. “It’s easier,” he said. “You get a break when you come down in the elevator. Plus, we’re comfortable here because this is where we train.”
Among the first group of firefighters to tackle the stairs was Kasey Knighten, one of John Knighten’s three daughters. “My sister and I have done the one in Seattle before,” said Ashley Knighten.
She said they were honored to be involved in the climb and that the Spokane Fire Department climbing team is named after their father. “It’s just really nice to know that the community is still involved in it,” she said.
When climbers reached the top the first time up the stairs, family members waiting on the 19th floor could hear thumping boots and the sound of breathing as they approached. By the third or fourth trip, the arrival of climbers was often heralded by screeching alarms that signaled low air in their tanks. Replacement bottles were available for those who ran out.
The first firefighter to reach the top in the first group of climbers was Spokane County Fire District 9 probationary firefighter Marc David, who was completing his first stair climb. “I wanted to do it because it’s a good cause,” he said. “We’ve been training for it a lot.”
Fellow District 9 firefighter Patrick Thoen wasn’t far behind him. It was his third stair climb event and he said he enjoys the challenge.
“It’s hard, but it’s addicting,” he said. “It feels good when you’re done.”