By KARI BLURTON
Hays Post
Hays Fire Department’s Justin Choitz, 41, is honoring 343 of his fallen “brothers” as he joins firefighters across the country to climb 110 stories at Denver’s 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb Thursday — a tribute Choitz said he feels called to undertake.
“They did the same job, the same daily routine that we did here in Hays,” Choitz said. “It was just the similarities between their lives and ours that got to me. We are not wanting to forget who they are and the sacrifices they made that day.”
Choitz has participated in eight memorial stair climbs over the last five years.
He said Thursday’s climb begins at 9:11 a.m. in the parking garage of CenturyLink Tower, a 53-story skyscraper in downtown Denver, with 343 firefighters from across the country representing a firefighter who died 13 years ago in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Before each event, the firefighters are given the name and biography of a firefighter who died and will then climb the tower twice in their honor, the equivalent of the 110 flights of stairs the New York firefighters were able to make before the World Trade Center towers collapsed.
Choitz admitted the climb is physically draining but said the end of the climb, when each firefighter rings a bell and announces the name of the person they are representing, is the “hardest” part.
“It blows your mind when you look … and see 343 guys. That in a single day, in a single event weren’t there anymore,” he said. “To go through all the climbing and finally make it to that floor and ring the bell and have that bell sound. … It’s pretty sobering.”
Choitz also participated in Sunday’s 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb in Kansas City along with four members of the Great Bend Fire Department, where he climbed for New York City Fire Department Battalion Chief Thomas “Tommy” DeAngelis, who died on 9/11.
DeAngelis’ picture remains affixed to Choitz’s airtank, along with a lanyard of the pictures of five other firefighters Choitz has represented in previous climbs, a reminder of the sacrifice firefighters made.
Not only does Choitz feel “called” to participate in the climbs, but also feels he was called to be a firefighter.
“When I was offered a full-time position in 2004, I contemplated it and asked (the administrative assistant) if I took the job ‘When would be my first day be?’ ” he recalled.
“She looked through (the calendar) and said Sunday, September 11th, so I thought ‘Well, I guess that kind of answers it,’ ” Choitz said with a smile.
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