Raising money to fight cancer, seven Powell volunteer firefighters joined more than 2,000 firefighters from across the country and around the world in successfully climbing Seattle’s Columbia Center step by step.

The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society has organized the annual stairclimb for 31 years, solely for professional and volunteer firefighters.

Despite the Powell team being split up in their charity run, Assistant Chief Jason Fields was not alone. Fields said he might not have made it to the top if it wasn’t for Powell resident Jeremy Johnston.

Johnston, curator of the Buffalo Bill Museum at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, was recently diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Fields carried a photo of Johnston on the brim of his helmet.

“I decided we were going to do [the climb] together,” Fields said.

Needing to tackle 788 feet of vertical elevation, the firefighter was about 51 floors up when he started to wonder if he could finish.

With a start time of 11 a.m., the modest-sized stairwell had already heated up, with climbers heading up every 10 seconds since 8 a.m. Fields started strong, remembering the words of motivational speakers prior to the start of the race. Yet, it wasn’t long before the weight of his full structural turnout gear and air tank started to feel heavy and sweat began filling his oxygen mask.

“I started to doubt that I trained hard enough and if I was going to be able to do it,” he said.

During training, the team of seven Powell volunteers were there to help push each other. They trained hard, said team organizer Bret Bassett. He and volunteers Scott Shoopman, Thomas Watts, Brady Melton, Tommy May and Fields took part in several types of training, from working out on stair climbing machines in full gear at Club Dauntless, to running the Powell airport road in the heat of the day. Despite months of training, most agreed it wasn’t enough.

“When I came out of the stairwell on the 73rd floor I was gassed. I had nothing left in the tank,” Bassett said.

Based on the amount of conditioning and the nerves of competing in their first ever international event, Bassett was pleased with the team’s effort. “I couldn’t have done better that day.”

Powell climbers had to stagger their start times to give Damian Dicks — their de facto pit crew on the 39th floor — the time to quickly refresh each of their tanks. The only local support they would get was by reaching Dicks. If they passed up the opportunity for a fresh tank and ran out before reaching the observation deck on the 73rd floor, they would have been disqualified.

Everyone struggled, with the possible exception of Shoopman, who seems to have the lungs and legs of a human matched with the spirit of a wild animal.

“He yelps and away he goes,” Bassett said.

Shoopman finished with the best time for the team at 17:50.2. The rest of the team finished with times ranging from just over 20 minutes to just under 40 minutes. The team was thrilled to be able to donate $8,200 “thanks to our generous donors in the community,” Bassett said.

Johnston said he was honored by Fields’ gesture. He’s also very hopeful, thanks to recent advances in treatments.

“Just thinking about the time and effort and the investment that went into trying to figure out the best way to handle lymphoma is amazing,” he said, acknowledging the efforts of those raising money for research. “The advancements that they’ve made in the last few years are just so incredible, that it gives me a lot of hope and confidence that I’m going to beat this thing.”

It was shortly after getting his tank changed that Fields started doubting he could finish. 

“Then I remembered why I was climbing,” he said. “I thought about all the people that are fighting cancer are going through way more pain than I had to endure to get up those stairs. I had Jeremy with me [in spirit] and I just had to dig deep and go.”