SAN DIEGO — Nearly a thousand people geared up Sunday morning for the San Diego 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb at the Hilton Bayfront Hotel to remember the courage and sacrifice of emergency responders.

Those there at the event, including some FOX 5 team members, joined in to climb 110 flights of stairs — the same number in the World Trade Center — while wearing the name of an emergency responder who lost their life that day.

“We asked the climbers to go learn a little bit about them,” said Brandt Truver, President of Firefighter Aid. “That way, hopefully, they come with an understanding of who their firefighter or first responder is.”

“That way they really can experience what that person was enduring in the stairwells on that fateful day,” he added.

The annual stair climb raises funds for Firefighter Aid, a San Diego non-profit that helps firefighters in need and their families.

In 2023, the non-profit hopes to raise $120,000. According to officials with the non-profit, they have raised $71,670 so far.