To honor a man who ran through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel to the burning World Trade Center towers on 9/11, three Norrisville volunteer firefighters ran three miles in an annual New York City race Sept. 25.
Lt. Corey Watkins, a volunteer firefighter for the Norrisville station and a fire dispatcher for Baltimore County, went to New York Sept. 23 along with Sgt. Rich Miller, firefighter and EMS Ryan DiGiacinto and secretary Samantha Sheehan, who took pictures during the race, for the 5K, which is held every year to support the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation.
Mr. Siller was a Brooklyn fireman and had just gotten off a shift at the firehouse when he heard on his scanner that a plane had hit one of the Twin Towers. He returned to the station to get his gear and drove toward Manhattan. When he reached the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, it had already been closed to traffic. Instead of sitting idly by, Mr. Siller put on his 60 pounds of turnout gear and ran through the tunnel to the World Trade Center. He was killed when the first tower collapsed.
In his memory, a race has been held every year, inviting firefighters, policemen and women, EMS and ordinary citizens to make the same run he did 10 years ago.
Watkins, 20, of Norrisville, was originally the only person from the company who was going to participate, but others soon followed. It was the first race any of them had run.
The three runners didn't do much prepping, Watkins said, other than run in gear once before leaving for the Big Apple. In reality, nothing could have prepared them for the magnitude of people running and those there to cheer them along.
"It was crazy," Watkins remembered. "It was packed." He said nearly 40,000 people participated in the race that day, many in turnout gear like Watkins and his firefighter friends.
"After they sounded the horns, the people at the end, [it] took them an hour and a half just to cross the starting line," he said of the enormous crowd. But it wasn't about who finished first or who came in last — they were just running to pay tribute to a fallen fireman. Even people across the pond who were touched by Mr. Siller's story were there that day.
Watkins, who was near the front of the massive crowd, met a couple firefighters from London.
"I think … it's just the 9/11 story, his story," Watkins said, referring to what inspired the Londoners to make the trip to New York.
At first, Watkins, Miller and DiGiacinto couldn't run because the crowd was so condensed.
"We had to walk and eventually worked up to running," he said. When they reached the tunnel, bystanders were cheering the runners on and chanting "USA!" The noise was so loud, Watkins said, it vibrated off the walls of the tunnel.
With their names and Norrisville printed on the gear, people called out the firemen's names and shouted, "Good job, Norrisville!" when the three crossed the finish line. It took them 31 minutes to complete the race in nearly 60 pounds of gear.
"You can feel the heat in you," Watkins said about running in gear. "We were sweaty, I can tell you that." After crossing the finish line, the men were escorted up onto a stage where they were able to relax and cool down. People continued to trickle in for another two hours.
"We got to the end, and after five minutes of cooling down and not talking we talked about [how] we all felt the same way," Watkins remembered. They talked about the run and how none of them expected the kind of reception they received, such as people shaking their hands along the race or patting them on the back. "It was eerie."
Next year, Watkins hopes to participate in the run again and will "definitely practice a little more." But until then, he and the Norrisville Volunteer Fire Company still have a piece of New York to remind them of those who died on 9/11 — a 33-inch long steel beam from one of the World Trade Center towers.
The fire company has the 9/11 artifact on display at the firehouse, circled by photos from that tragic day. It serves as a constant reminder of the men and women who died and an appreciation for those who put their lives on the line, like Mr. Siller.