For Kat Frost, the heat was part of it. The weight of what she was carrying was something else.
Frost was among almost 300 firefighters from the UK and Ireland who travelled to Atlanta, Georgia, to take part in the United 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb at baseball stadium Truist Park.
Last weekend, participants climbed 110 flights of stairs in full fire kit in temperatures of about 35C and high humidity, replicating the ascent made by firefighters during the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York in 2001.
“It was emotional, but it was an amazing experience,” Frost said.
She was joined by fellow Shropshire firefighters Stuart Hughes, Andrew Bradbury, Simon Roberts and Luke Alexander, as well as Becky Barden from Presteigne in Powys, and Beth Jones from Leominster, Herefordshire.
Each firefighter carried a photo of someone who lost their life in the attacks.
“We all came away with a great sense of pride and satisfaction that we were able to do that, to carry those names, those people with us,” Frost said.
“It was hot, it was very hot. A lot of bottled water got drank, a lot of ice lollies got eaten.
“We all know how many people lost their lives in 9/11 but to actually put faces to numbers was so much more emotional.
“We all had a really emotional time.”
Frost said the person she carried was Robert Wallace.
“My person was a man called Robert Wallace, he was a 43-year-old father of four and a loving husband to his wife Nancy,” she said.
“He was assigned to Engine 22 in Brooklyn, which wasn’t his normal station.
“His normal station was Engine 205 and Ladder 118 but he was obviously sent to a different department that day and he lost his life.”
Frost said the experience also reflected a shared bond among firefighters.
“The word ‘fire family’ is bounced around quite often, we all say we’re part of one big family,” she said.
“When you extend that across the world we all wear different kit, we have different names, we have different stations, we have different accents but we all have the same job.
“It could have been any one of us running into that situation.”
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