Scaling the Heights to Honor First Responders

By KURTIS RATTAY

For the fourth year participants were scheduled to climb thousands of steps to scale One World Trade for the annual Tower Climb, which honors first responders who died in the line-of-duty on 9/11.

The Tower Climb is scheduled for June 3rd, and honors firefighter Stephen Siller and Captain Billy Burke, who died while engaged in a rescue mission when the towers came down. 

But this year the Tunnel to Towers Foundation announced on Thursday that two honorary starters for the annual Tower Climb—Melissa Feis and Debra Hixon—whose husbands Aaron Feis and Chris Hixon, died saving lives  in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Florida last February. 

“Right away we said we would like their family members, their widows to be with us,” said foundation spokesman John Hodge. “First responders run towards danger—it’s not the normal human response but that’s what they do—certainly that’s what happened on September 11, and that’s what happened in Parkland, Florida. They were not first responders they were teachers, but they acted like first responders that day.” 

The foundation also awarded the Hixon and Feis families with a check for $50,000 each, to help with financial burdens following the loss of their husbands. 

“When a call came out that something was wrong he ran into that building,” Debra Hixon said. “He didn’t have to do that. He tried to disarm the gunman and lost his life doing that because he wanted to save the people around him.”

That was also the case for athletic coach Aaron Feis, who “was an ever-present figure” at the high school, Melissa Feis, who wasn’t present at the announcement, said in a statement. Feis held several job titles at the high school to support his family. 

Typically when a first responder is killed in the line-of-duty, a death benefit is paid to their family. But because Feis and Hixon were teachers acting as first responders, “there’s a good chance that they do not get any kind of special benefit for the actions they took,” Hodge said. 

The idea for the first Tower Climb came from Michael Burke, brother of Captain Burke who stayed behind with two civilians when there were no working elevators, one of them a quadriplegic in a mechanized wheelchair. Burke was on the 27th floor of Tower One when Tower Two collapsed, and ordered firefighters a few floors down to evacuate. His half-burned rig—Engine 21—is on display at the National September 11 Memorial Museum. 

The Stephen Siller Tunnel to Tower’s Foundation honors Stephen Siller who carried 60 pounds of gear through Brooklyn Battery Tunnel and was last seen on Vesey and West streets in Lower Manhattan. The foundation organizes the annual Tunnel to Towers 5K, and builds smart homes for the nations most injured military and first responders. 

Photo by Kurtis Rattay