By Dan Derlacki, Deputy Fire Marshal, Bend Fire Dept.
On March 6, 2016, Bend firefighters competed in the 25th Annual Scott Firefighter Stair Climb Challenge in Seattle. This event is a fundraiser for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and draws firefighters from around the world to Seattle to climb 69 floors of Seattle’s tallest building, the Columbia Center. 1,800 firefighters from 7 countries, 26 states and 335 departments took part this year. They do the climb in all of their protective gear including air tank and mask, more than 60 pounds of total gear worn as they climb the 1,311 steps. Each Bend firefighter carried with him a photograph of Tristan Carrion, a local 6 year old boy who is currently battling cancer.
Fundraising continues through the end of March. Each donation goes directly to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society for blood-cancer research and patient services. Please help us make a difference in the fight against cancer! Click here to help the Bend Firefighters to fight cancer.
Highlights from this year’s team:
- Surpassed fundraising goal of $30,000 by raising nearly $40,000 for LLS!!This was all done by the support of the community, which we cannot thank enough!! (Donations are still accepted through March)
- Deputy Chief Mark Taylor has raised over $10,000 by himself this year!
That puts him the 6th highest single fundraiser this year.
- Captain Scott Wyman placed 4th overall out of nearly 1,800 competitors
with a time of 12 mins, 3 seconds! That is a flight of stairs every 11 seconds!
- Bend Fire Department placed 5th as a team
(top 3 fastest from a department added together to make the team time) out of 335 teams/departments
represented.
- That puts the Bend Fire team tops in Oregon across the board! That makes Scott the fastest competitor from Oregon, the Bend Fire Team the fastest from team from Oregon this year, Bend Fire the highest department fundraiser from Oregon and soon to be retiring Deputy Chief Mark Taylor the highest individual fundraiser from the state of Oregon.
Photo: Captain Mike Baxter and Firefighter Mitch Webb just before they started their climb. (Photo by Dan Derlacki.)
Here are the results of all 16 Bend Fire Department team members (overall place, name, time and rank out of overall):
Name
|
Time
|
Place
|
Scott
Wyman
|
12:03
|
4 / 1793
|
Mitchell
Webb
|
14:46
|
46 / 1793
|
Chris
Guy
|
15:29
|
87 / 1793
|
Terrance
Vibbert
|
15:50
|
112 / 1793
|
Alex
McClaran
|
16:08
|
128 / 1793
|
Mike
Baxter
|
16:24
|
146 / 1793
|
Brian
Boyd
|
17:19
|
218 / 1793
|
Eddie
Vahdat
|
17:22
|
227 / 1793
|
Jon
Erickson
|
17:24
|
229 / 1793
|
Vincent
Hollingsworth
|
17:42
|
265 / 1793
|
Preston
Prosser
|
18:32
|
378 / 1793
|
Jared
Hopper
|
18:33
|
379 / 1793
|
Nick
Pagen
|
18:40
|
395 / 1793
|
Brant
Slaughter
|
19:29
|
518 / 1793
|
Mark
Taylor
|
24:50
|
1142 / 1793
|
Anja
Sundali
|
29:19
|
1428 / 1793
|
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