(Photo Credit: Mamta Popat/Arizona Daily Star)

Remebering the lives lost in 9/11 attack

For the eighth year in a row, first responders and their supporters in Tucson, Arizona, are climbing 2071 stairs in memory of the 300-plus firefighters who died rushing into the Twin Towers on 9/11.

The event, known as the 9/11 Tower Challenge, started in 2011 with just 125 participants. This year, 1,500 people will participate in the event at the University of Arizona football stadium.

Rob Brandt, the president of the foundation that hosts the 9/11 Tower Challenge, said the event is important because the newest generation of first responders don’t even remember September 11.

“There’s going to be young people raising their right hand taking an oath to defend this nation that weren’t even alive on September 11th,” Brandt said.

Eighteen years ago, on September 11, 2001, nineteen hijackers commandeered four American planes and crashed them into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon. The fourth plane, believed to be headed for the U.S. Capitol Building, crashed in Pennsylvania after the passengers rebelled.

While many victims of 9/11 were trapped above the site of the crash in the World Trade Centers, New York firefighters were also able to evacuate countless people from the burning buildings before they collapsed. The 2071 stairs climbed by participants in the Tower Challenge represent the number of stairs climbed by firefighters on September 11.