![\"Jamie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/bbc_us_articles_995\/14df338beda397ed3ea36e146131780d.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\nFirefighters have said they were left feeling emotional after they retraced the 5km (3 mile) journey of a fireman who died in the September 11 attacks in New York.<\/p>\n
Jamie Smith was among those from the County Durham & Darlington Fire and Rescue Service (CDDFRS) who took part in the Tunnel to Towers 5K Run & Walk on Sunday.<\/p>\n
They, along with about 40,000 others, walked from Brooklyn to the World Trade Center in New York, recreating the final journey of FDNY fireman, Stephen Siller.<\/p>\n
Smith, and a group of six serving firefighters from the North East, completed the journey in full equipment in heavy rainfall in aid of charity.<\/p>\n
They have since raised more than \u00a33,500 for The Fire Fighters Charity, which provides care and mental health support, and advice, to crews and their family.<\/p>\n
“It was great, but a bit wet and soggy… the weather [was] awful in New York,” said CDDFRS crew manager Paul Bainbridge.<\/p>\n
However, he said it was “very emotional” as he and colleagues recreated the steps Siller took, which included travelling through the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel.<\/p>\n
Siller famously abandoned his car at the tunnel, before making the journey to the WTC on foot, while carrying about 30kg of equipment.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Jamie Smith (left) and Paul Bainbridge met Siller’s brother, Frank, who runs the Tunnel 2 Towers Foundation [Paul Bainbridge]<\/p>\n
Upon exiting the tunnel, about 1,000 off-duty firefighters in full uniform waved participants through, and many held up pictures of colleagues who died in the attacks.<\/p>\n
Smith, a watch manager at High Handenhold Fire Station, said the weather “didn’t stop us” from completing the challenge, despite flooding in parts of the city.<\/p>\n
Describing how it felt, he added: “You can’t explain it, unless you come and see what I have just seen.”<\/p>\n
More on this storyRelated internet links<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Firefighters have said they were left feeling emotional after they retraced the 5km (3 mile) journey of a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358830,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[133553,195,133551,9,11,10,133552,84426,89982],"class_list":["post-358829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-feeling-emotional","tag-firefighters","tag-jamie-smith","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-paul-bainbridge","tag-september-11-attacks","tag-stephen-siller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}