Medical Lake firefighters are ready to tackle the Seattle Stairclimb

Local department holds fundraising carwash Feb. 26 before heading west to take part in a race that benefits Leukemia-Lymphoma Society

By RYAN LANCASTER

Staff Reporter

On Sunday, March 6 five Medical Lake firefighters will join 1,500 others to race up the Columbia Center Tower in Seattle wearing about 45 pounds of gear and breathing equipment.

Billed as the largest individual firefighter stair climb in the country, the annual Scott Firefighter Stairclimb is a mad dash up 69 flights of stairs to benefit the Leukemia-Lymphoma Society. According to the society's website, last year's Scott Stairclimb included nearly 250 fire departments from the U.S., Canada and New Zealand and raised a record $780,000 for blood-cancer research through sponsorships, fundraising and entry fees.

While a number of Spokane area fire departments have competed in the stair climb over the years, Chief Jeff Estes said this is the first time a team from the Medical Lake Fire Department will participate. Since November Estes has joined Nathan Shaw, Patrick Burt, Ellen Fender and Shawn Grittner at the Bank of America tower in downtown Spokane to train for the race two to three times a week.

“There aren't really any super-tall buildings in this area so we usually do four laps,” Estes said. “We started out training in shorts and sneakers but now we've worked up to wearing all the gear with an air pack and helmet.”

Firefighter Meije Tiersma has also trained as a “bottle changer” for the team and will be on the 40th floor of the Columbia Center, ready to switch out old air tanks for new.

All the preparation will come in handy. At 788 feet, the Columbia Center stands as the second tallest building west of the Mississippi. Top racers have been known to take as little as 11 minutes to clamber up 1,311 steps to the observation deck, but most participants finish in 20 to 30 minutes.

Last year a team from the Spokane Fire Department finished third out of 129 teams. Spokane firefighters Eric Ross, Jason Keen and Jesse Ayotte completed the climb with a cumulative time of 41 minutes, 36.8 seconds and Ross, 44, took first place in the master's division. The Spokane Valley Fire Department meanwhile placed sixth with Paul Kimball, Mark Knokey and Dustin Waterbly finishing in 41 minutes, 49.4 seconds.

Estes has participated in the stair climb before as a member of the Spokane Fire Department. He said he intended to get a team registered from MLFD last year but was too slow. In 2010 registration slots were filled within two weeks and this year they were gone in less than a day.

To help the MLFD team raise money for the Lymphoma-Leukemia Society a carwash will be held Feb. 26 from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. at the Medical Lake Carwash, 625 E. Highway 902.

According to their website, the Leukemia-Lymphoma Society is the world's largest voluntary health organization dedicated to funding blood cancer research, education and patient services. The society's mission is to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and myeloma, and since it was founded in 1954 it has awarded more than $680 million in research funding.

For more information on the Scott Stairclimb or to donate on behalf of the MLFD team, visit http://www.firefighterstairclimb.org and search for Medical Lake Fire Department under the “donate now” tab.

Ryan Lancaster can be reached at [email protected].