CAHOKIA, Ill. - A 9/11 survivor and hundreds of others took to the stairs of the Cahokia Mounds, Thursday, as a memorial for the anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
All of them carrying the name of a first responder who died 13 years ago in the attack.
Jason Jensen who survived 9/11 says these events are incredibly important.
"I'd seen the pieces of shrapnel and the large fireballs coming from one so, I thought our building is next and I just couldn't stand it much longer sitting in one spot so eventually I made my way to the stairwell," Jensen said.
13 years later, the memories are still vivid for Jensen. He was on the 61st floor in the second tower to get hit.
He remembers being surrounded on the stairs trying to get out, while others went in.
"The first responders going up into the other stairwells as defiant as ever and I can tell you as hot as it was in there I said to several of them you are going into hell and little did I know it literally was hell," says Jensen.
Now he walks, for those that lost their lives and for those that he watched go in the buildings.
One in particular Rick Rescorla, whose name Jensen wears on his back.
"Actually helped redesign some of the escape routes and he actually saved thousands of people and unfortunately he perished," he says of Rescorla who was a security guard.
Hundreds from all walks of life conquered the stairs at the Cahokia Mounds.
Including first responders and soldiers like Private Clay Stephens a 17 years old in the Army Reserves.
"I will be able to feel what it was like for those firefighters and law enforcement to climb up the steps to save those people, I may not be saving anybody today but I will be able to fee what it was like to walk up those steps," said Private Stephens.
The organizers of this event say they came up with this idea because they wanted more of an emotional connection to 9/11.
Climbing the stairs helps put into perspective what the first responders went through.
