Firefighters step up to conquer 69 floors
Published 9:40 pm Sunday, February 28, 2010
MUKILTEO — Before cancer took his father’s life, Tony Mace wanted him to know he decided to follow in his footsteps.
He decided to become a firefighter.
Almost a dozen years later, Mace, 39, of Granite Falls, hasn’t lost track of what partially drove him to join the fire service. The Paine Field Fire Department firefighter is raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society as a way to honor his father, Steve Mace, a former battalion chief with Snohomish County Fire District 1.
A week from today, Mace plans to join hundreds of firefighters from all over the world competing to climb, in full gear, the stairs of Seattle’s Columbia Center in the Scott Firefighter Stair Climb. Many other firefighters from around Snohomish County are taking part in the annual event.
In preparation for the climb, Mace and Mukilteo firefighter Mike Ward put together a fundraiser. Seven firefighters from Mukilteo and two from Paine Field spent all day Saturday training on a stair climber exercise machine outside the QFC grocery store on Mukilteo Speedway, collecting donations for cancer research.
Dressed in full bunker gear, including breathing apparatus, they took turns on the stair climber, training for about as much time as they’d need to climb the 69 flights of stairs inside Seattle’s tallest building, Mace said.
It’s an uphill battle, considering that firefighter gear weighs 50 to 60 pounds, he said.
Mace raised $3,500 last year and hopes to top that this year.
Paine Field Fire Department Chief Jeff Bohnet also plans to climb the Columbia Center. He is looking forward to what he says will be a father-daughter moment: Bohnet will compete with his daughter, a firefighter in the Spokane area.
“She will beat me, probably, but I’m not going to let her off easy,” he said. “I will push her.”
Dozens of people coming in and out of the store donated throughout the day. Firefighters were thankful for people’s generosity in tough times.
Mark Johnson of Mukilteo and his wife also stopped by to make a donation.
“I try to support firefighters,” he said. “It’s a good cause.”
Katya Yefimova: 425-339-3452, kyefimova@heraldnet.com.
