25 Years.343 Heroes.
One Legacy.
Honor the 343. Honor Every Fallen Firefighter.
For the 25th anniversary of 9/11, every American can help finish the heroic climb of the 343. Join an Official 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb or climb one or more flights anywhere, share your tribute, challenge others and donate. Together, every step becomes a promise that America will never forget.
A National Movement
Three Ways to Participate
Honor the 343 FDNY firefighters who gave their lives on September 11, 2001, and every firefighter who has made the ultimate sacrifice. Choose your way. Every participant becomes part of a nationwide movement.
Find a Climb Near Me
Join an Official 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb. These are the official events, organized by communities and fire departments across America, where participants climb the equivalent of the World Trade Center’s 110 stories.
- Born in a Denver stairwell, 2005
- Official climbs in more than 40 states
Honor Anywhere
It is simple: For Everyone. Anywhere.
Click below and climb one or more flights of stairs, anywhere, capture a photo or video to share your tribute, and challenge others. Together we can finish their climb.
Or share a memory, or a 3.43 mile bike ride, run or walk, however you honor, you make a difference.
THANK YOU!!
Honor AnywhereDonate
Support the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation and Fire Hero Families. Your gift honors fallen firefighters, supports their families, and helps ensure their sacrifice is never forgotten. The NFFF is a 501(c)(3) organization, and all donations are tax deductible.
DonateFor the Generation That Wasn’t There
What Happened That Morning
An estimated 100 million Americans were not yet born on September 11, 2001. This is the story, told plainly, of the greatest rescue operation in American history, and its price.
The First Alarm
Flight 11 strikes the North Tower. Within minutes, the FDNY begins the largest response in its history. Companies from 75 firehouses across all five boroughs are dispatched to Lower Manhattan.
The Climb Up
Flight 175 strikes the South Tower. With tens of thousands of civilians inside, commanders order full evacuation. Firefighters in 60 pounds of gear climb up the stairwells as office workers stream down past them, many pausing to reassure the evacuees they pass.
The Highest Floor
FDNY members reach the 78th floor of the South Tower, the highest point recorded that morning, and radio down what they find, calling for lines and companies to fight the fire and reach the trapped.
The Collapse
The South Tower falls, then the North. 343 members of the FDNY are killed: every rank, from probationary firefighters to the Chief of Department, and the Department’s chaplain. It remains the deadliest day for firefighters in history. In all, 2,977 innocent people are lost.
The Toll That Didn’t Stop
In the months after, thousands worked on the rescue and recovery in toxic debris. Many more firefighters have since died of World Trade Center related illness, tragically a number that continues to grow. This movement honors them all.
“They answered the call without hesitation. Twenty-five years later, we finish the climb together.”
The Gold Standard
The Official Memorial Stair Climbs
Organized by communities and fire departments across America under the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, the Official 9/11 Memorial Stair Climbs are the premier way to honor the 343. This is where the movement was born.
Deployed in Afghanistan, an Albuquerque fire lieutenant climbs a two-story building 55 times, 110 stories, in body armor, alone, in honor of the fallen.
Five Colorado firefighters move their monthly training climb to September 11 and ascend 110 flights in full gear in downtown Denver, in memory of their FDNY brothers.
Denver caps its climb at 343, one climber for each firefighter lost, and introduces the defining ritual: every climber carries a badge with the name and photograph of one of the 343.
The founders partner with the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation to create a national template. The climbs begin to spread.
Official climbs in more than 40 states. Thirteen thousand climbers a year. Millions raised for the families of the fallen. For the 25th Anniversary, every American is invited to join them.
Participate Today
Three ways. One movement. Every tribute has value.
Together We Honor
One Nation Rising
Every climb, every memory, every mile, every gift. Recorded here, live, from every corner of the country.
Where Your Tribute Goes
The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation
Founded by Congress in 1992, the NFFF honors America’s fallen firefighters, supports their families, and helps reduce firefighter deaths and injuries through education, research, and national safety initiatives. For more than three decades, the Foundation has ensured that those who dedicate their lives to protecting us are never forgotten.
The NFFF is a 501(c)(3) organization, and all donations are tax deductible.
National Memorial Weekend
Each year in Emmitsburg, Maryland, the names of the fallen are added to the National Memorial, with the Foundation covering travel and lodging so no family grieves alone.
Fire Hero Families
Peer support networks, grief programs, scholarships for spouses and children, and the Hal Bruno bereavement camps for kids of the fallen.
Prevention Nationwide
Research, training, and safety programs working to reduce the roughly 100 line-of-duty deaths the American fire service suffers every year.
Where Every Dollar Goes
Gifts made through For the 343 support NFFF programs for the families of fallen firefighters and firefighter safety initiatives. Full financials and accountability reports are published at firehero.org.
Start It In Your Community
For Group Organizers & Press
Fire departments, workplaces, schools, organizations, and media. Launch your whole community in ten minutes, self-serve, with everything pre-made.
The Third Way to Participate
Donate: Your Gift Honors Them
The NFFF is a 501(c)(3) organization; all donations are tax deductible.
Department and team giving and employer matching are all deductible as well.
Support the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation and Fire Hero Families. Every gift honors fallen firefighters, supports their families, and helps ensure their sacrifice is never forgotten.