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Las Vegas firefighters mark 9/11 with stair climb
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THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Updated: Sep. 12, 2011 | 7:33 a.m.
Las Vegas firefighter Gregg Burns found new life for an American flag he received in a Sunday morning parade marking the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
He stuck it to his helmet for his 108-story climb a couple of hours later up the Stratosphere tower on Las Vegas Boulevard.
Around his neck, the 49-year-old bore the names of New York firefighters Thomas Gambino Jr. and Stephen E. Belson, who perished in the collapse of the 110-story World Trade Center towers.
"Bottom line, this is for them," Burns said, sweating in his heavy turnout coat as he and 290 other Southern Nevada firefighters and police officers prepared to ascend the tallest building in Las Vegas in memory of the 343 firefighters and 60 police officers who died climbing the tallest buildings in New York City a decade ago.
"This is nothing like what those guys went through," Burns said. "People need to be reminded."
North Las Vegas firefighter and paramedic Chad Reyes, 28, clipped into his usual 50 pounds of protective gear for the 20-plus-minute trek up the 1,149-foot Stratosphere tower. He also bore a memorial photo of New York City firefighter Ronnie L. Henderson.
As he waited to join the procession up the stairs, Clark County firefighter Jon Fleischman, 39, remembered watching, stunned, as the television at his fire station showed the collapse of the 1,362- and 1,368-foot Trade Center towers.
"When those towers fell, my first thought was, 'How many firefighters just died?' " Fleischman said. "This is tough. It's hard to do. But that's what they did."
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All you extremely overpaid, under worked, scamming, local public employee union firefighter 9-11 "Fake Heroes"...get a life, you act like your are still in junior high school. How many of you "Heroes" were on double overtime pay due to fake "sick call-ins" and how many of you "Heores" claimed disability injuries after your "Hero" climbs up the stairs? It's bad enough that you self-described "Heroes" scam the system to make yourselves multi-millionaires, scam the sick time process, and then call the press to show-up and then dress up in your "Heroes" uniforms with axes, shovels and bagpipes to impress the tourists at the New York Hotel, then pose for the tourists to take your pictures, then have your numerous comments and numerous pictures in the local Las Vegas newspapers and on several TV stations and on the internet, shake hands with the tourists, probably offer to sign autographs for the tourists and their kids, etc, etc. Hey "Mr. Overpaid Union Heroes"....
9-11 was in New York City and Washington D.C., over ten years ago and did not involve ANY of you local, public employee union, high school/GED educated, "Fake Hero" firefighters...shame, shame, shame on you all....the local firefighters are always looking to promote yourselves, just like some little 7th grader boy would do, saying..."Hey everyone, look at me, I'm a Hero". And you do the New York Hotel thing every year...shame, shame, shame.
Proudfireman I doubt you are what you claim to be. Scene safety is first and foremost on every call. So stop with the self righteous "lay down my life garbage". NYFD suffered a massive loss as did the country, most of those brave men where hero's. By default that does not make you a hero. I applaud the CCFD if none of them were paid for this and no one will earn OT for this. If they did it is disrespectful to the fallen firefighters in NY. The absolute fact that CCFD is a bunch of overpaid liberal democrat supporting union hacks is another story for another time. Today we remember the fallen, hopefully you did not disrespect the dead by profiting from this...
Give them all the overtime they want. They are so heroic for climbing the stairs. The NYFD have made all firemen in the USA automatic heroes, and the ones in Las Vegas have been taking full advantage of it since 9/12/01.
Watch, now our local FF will think they are entitled to some kind of extra pay for climbing the stairs at the Stratosphere. Hey Proudfireman, heros don't belong to unions. Your a hero for the act you do, not a title.
So if there were another plane crash into a building would the fire department still run up the stairs to the fire and victims???
You people make me ill! I am a fireman in this valley, and it sickens me that I may lay my life down one day to save yours! I apologize for the way you feel about the firemen in this valley, but please have some dignity and don't take away the moment that the heroes in New York deserve! And yes, they are HEROES!
Trolls: socially inept losers who are incapable of engaging in interpersonal relationships. Instead of experiencing true emotion through contact with functional human beings, these pathetic figures can only interact with the world by posting deliberately provocative comments from the safety of their keyboards. The adrenaline rush they receive from the negative responses of normal humans to their immature nonsense is the only form of emotion - besides self-loathing and shame over their failed lives - that they get.
Don't bother trying to shame or make fun of these losers; pity them, because they are bitter, petty, tiny-minded people whose lives lack meaning. They wish to ruin the happiness of others because they are jealous of what they know they can never, ever achieve. And they will never understand just how small they are; trying to make them understand just how silly and stupid they are is like trying to get a dog to speak Russian. It just can't be done.
5...4...3...2...
Does this mean the local firefighters set aside their sick leave scam for a day? At least now I know why I didn't see any fire trucks today illegally parked in front of Smith's Food King with half a dozen firefighters grocery shopping.
What locals to Las Vegas should never forget is how much these "hero's" take our tax dollars. Gregg Burns, quoted in this article, pulled in $169,000 in salary and benefits in 2010 and $181,000 in 2009. Chad Reyes pulled in $162,000 in Salary and Benefits in 2010. I guess the article saved the best for last. Jon Fleischman has raked in about $185,000 in salary and benefits for the last 3 years strong. Certainly there is no recession for Jon. Last year alone he had $22,000 in overtime pay. I thought Steve Sisolak and Clark County solved this BS. I bet all these guys were on the clock, some being paid overtime, for this PR stunt. Always remember, never forget Clark County.
@ N7etc., you are so toxic it's unbelievable. Who could actually say something like that about the NYC firefighters on 9/11 (or any other time)? I get so sick of the moronic haters on the RJ comment board. Get a life. Seriously. Maybe you could start with getting out of your Mom's basement, where I suspect you spend most of your time.