Firefighter fundraiser raises awareness for mental health

Firefighters raced up and down hundreds of stairs at the Steinbach Credit Union building to raise money and awareness for first responders’ mental health on Sept. 11.

Nearly 70 firefighters arrived at the Main Street credit union building for the Steinbach Fire Department’s first ever 9/11 stair climb event. Steinbach’s assistant fire chief Russ Reimer said more than 10 different Manitoba departments were represented at the event.

“This has been a tremendous day of just building morale and camaraderie amongst our fellow firefighters,” he said.

Stair climbs happen across both Canada and the U.S. to remember the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre towers in 2001. The event has fully-equipped firefighters climbing the equivalent of 110 stories, the height of the World Trade Centre, to honour the 343 firefighters who died responding to the attack. To do the climb in Steinbach, firefighters had to go up and down the bank building’s six floors at least seven times, Reimer said.

“Climbing like this on 9/11 specifically honours those members At the same time, it’s about all of us reflecting on why we do this and the sacrifice that we’re willing to make,” Reimer told The Carillon.

He said doing the climb also extends to raising awareness about firefighters who’ve taken their own lives, are critically injured or who struggle with their mental health. For many rural or volunteer fire departments, Reimer said there will never be adequate mental health resources available.

“They gotta try to rely on their private insurance, if they even have that. If it’s job related to what we do, it may not even be covered,” he said.

The money raised from the event will go into a mental health support fund to help people access trauma therapists and other mental resources if they can’t afford it, Reimer said.

Nicholas Wiens, a volunteer firefighter with the Ritchot Fire Department, said his legs felt like quicksand while doing the climb.

The 21-year-old was born before the 9/11 attacks but wanted to do the climb to honour his fellow first responders and respect their sacrifice.

“Keeping their memory alive is extremely important because to a lot of people it’s just a day,” Wiens said. “But to us, it’s one of the biggest tragedies to happen to first responders around the world.”

He said first responders carry a lot of emotional and mental weight from what they see on the job and its difficult to find someone to share that with. Breaking the stigma around mental health is crucial to help first responders cope with the trauma they experience, Wiens said.

“The healthiest thing to do is talk about it and get rid of that stigmatization,” he said.