KXLY Spokane – May 28, 2015
by Melissa Luck, KXLY4 Executive Producer
This week, America paused to honor the men and women who gave their lives in service to our country. In Spokane, a man used the Memorial Day holiday to complete a nearly three year mission to honor the brave firefighters who died trying to save others on September 11th.
For two years, seven months and four days, Spokane firefighter Roger Libby has found himself climbing the stairs at the Bank of America building in downtown Spokane. Each time, he’s worn a lanyard around his neck carrying a picture of a man he’s never met.
“I don’t feel that what I’m doing is remarkable,” Libby said. “I’m memorializing something remarkable done by 343 remarkable men.”
Before and after shifts at the firehouse, Libby attached a new picture and climbed stairs to honor every New York firefighter killed on 9/11. What began as a simple tribute became an obsession. It has been a solitary experience by design; alone in the stairs, he thinks about the men who went into the World Trade Center that day and never came out.
“I think about what his family is going through and, hopefully, they’ve recovered from this and moved on,” Libby said. “I hope in some way they know I’ve shown some honor and respect for him.”
On Memorial Day, Libby came to the last name on the list: a 28-year old firefighter named Kevin Reilly.
“Kevin Reilly was a great young kid,” remembers FDNY Lt. Art Riccio, who worked with Reilly the day before 9/11. Like his brothers, Riccio went into the tower that day, carrying an unconscious woman down 18 stories. He doesn’t know if she survived; for a time, he didn’t know why he did, either.
“After September 11th, I had survival guilt,” Riccio said. “I felt terrible. Why did my young guys die and I didn’t? I guess God didn’t want me to go yet.”
It helps Riccio to know that, even all the way across the country, people like Roger Libby have not forgotten that sacrifice. The two men met in a chance encounter in the Caribbean last year. Riccio and his wife came to Spokane this week as Libby’s guest for his final climb. He managed to calm Libby’s nerves as well.
“Before we came [to the climb], Uncle Arty reached over the seat and grabbed me by the shoulders,” Libby explained. “He said, ‘Roger, just remember, there’s 343 of our brothers up there looking down on your today and they’re appreciative of what you’re doing.'”
They say firefighters never go in alone. So, despite his solitary effort on the stairs, Libby was surrounded on his last climb by his brothers and sisters in the fire department. Clad in their dress uniforms, they gathered in the lobby of the Bank of America building and waited to celebrate this final climb.
Inside the stairwell, each step was a tribute to those men who died trying to save others. Libby was alone with his thoughts of them one last time, climbing at least 110 stories each time – the height of the World Trade Center towers.
By the time he’s done, he will have climbed 50,352 flights of stairs – alone. When he came out of the door a final time, he was greeted with cheers, bagpipes and high fives – and, pats on the back from his brothers and sisters. Then, Libby presented a plaque to hang in the the Bank of America building, listing the names of all 343 fallen firefighters. It will hang outside the stairway where Roger spent his time off honoring them.
He may be done climbing, but he’ll never stop honoring their sacrifice.
“It will never be done, really,” Libby said. “Because I’ll carry it with me in my heart every day.”
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