Crime & Safety

UPDATE: Redmond Firefighters Raise More Than $6,000 For Charity

Ten local first-responders climbed 69 flights of stairs at the Columbia Center on Sunday to benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

The Redmond Fire Department surpassed its fundraising goal for Sunday's Scott Firefighter Stairclimb at Columbia Center tower in downtown Seattle and has now raised more than $6,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, firefighter Tony Owens said Monday.

Eight Redmond firefighters and two paramedics joined more than 1,500 first-responders from around the world to participate in the event, which required climbers to tackle 69 flights of stairs and 1,311 steps — in full firefighting gear.

Redmond's top finisher was firefighter Josh Peeples, who completed the climb in 15 minutes, 38 seconds.

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“It’s a great cause," Owens said. "A lot of us in the fire department have been touched by someone who has had leukemia or lymphoma.”

The cause hits home for Owens personally. His father-in-law has fought lymphoma in the past, and the 6-year-old son of a family friend just had a relapse of leukemia.

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“He’s the little man that I’m climbing for this year,” Owens said of his friend's son. “He’s a tough little guy.”

But it wasn't just firefighters who took the climb on Sunday. Owens' wife Heather, a labor and delivery nurse, donned borrowed firefighter gear to take part in the event for the first time.

“She just wanted to challenge herself and go and give it a shot and see how she could do,” Owens said. "We started together and finished together — it was a really great time.”

In addition to Owens and Peeples, the following Redmond first-responders took part in Sunday's climb: firefighters Carl Zapffe, Paul Atkinson, Sam Hubbard, Taylor Hutton, John Simon and Capt. Ralph Ashmore, and paramedics Matt Nelson and Michael Waite.


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