Crime & Safety

West Pierce's Kilga Finishes Fourth in Seattle Stairclimb

Twenty-three West Pierce firefighters climbed 69 flights of stairs at the Columbia Center on Sunday to benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Eleven seconds. That's how quickly West Pierce firefighter Peter Kilga took a flight of stairs--69 times in a row.

Kilga was among 1,473 first responders from West Pierce Fire & Rescue and around the world who came to Seattle on Sunday to conquer the 69 flights of the Columbia Tower as part of the Scott's Firefighter Challenge to support the mission of The Leukemia &  Lymphoma Society, raising money through sponsorships, individual and department fund-raising, and entry fees.

Forty-year-old Kilga placed fourth overall, finishing in 11:48, or 11 seconds a flight average.

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Also in the top 100 finishers, West Pierce's Aaron Hagenbuch and Gus Hebish finished 73rd and 78th, respectively. 

To-date the West Pierce firefighters have raised $17,878.10. This year, 6-year-old Cole Vukich was selected as the 2013 Scott Firefighter Stairclimb Honoree. He is the son of West Pierce Fire & Rescue firefighter Steve Vukich and his wife Brooke. at At age 2, Cole was diagnosed with Biphenotypic Acute Leukemia (both AML & ALL). 

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Cole is currently receiving high-risk treatments including intrathecal lumbar punctures (where chemo is injected into the spinal fluid), IV drip chemo infusions, bone marrow aspirations, blood transfusions and surgery for port placement. He takes between one and nine chemo pills daily, all to keep the cancer from returning.

Cole has been in remission for a year and a half and has 7 months of chemotherapy left to go. This makes him one of Mary Bridge's longest on-treatment pediatric cancer patients. When Cole is done, he will have been on treatments for 3 years and 10 months.

Andrew Drobeck of Missoula (MT) City Fire placed first, finishing the tower in 10:48, or 10 seconds a flight average.

Click here for the full results.

Other West Pierce firefighters:

Rank Name Age Time 4 Peter Kilga 40 11:48 73 Aaron Hagenbuch 41 15:07 78 Gus Hebish 30 15:14 162 Jason Yantzer 43 16:20 191 Andrew Millard 37 16:37 288 Norm Fiacchi 43 17:37 292 Michael Boltz 40 17:42 320 Collin Murphy 36 17:54 402 Jeff Walker 28 18:33 563 Kyle Clark 27 19:50 698 Ken Von Stein 34 20:48 783 David McGrady 32 21:35 822 Kirk Lackermayer 43 21:56 903 Todd Lambert 46 22:49
937 Murray Macdonald 35 23:16 987 Jerrod Lugo 43 24:03 989 Jo Kummerle 44 24:04 1039 Stephen Murphy 56 25:04 1045 Nadrece Robinson 34 25:09 1084 Steve Vukich 44 26:02 1360 Chris Pfaff 52 36:00 1365 Larry Silva 43 36:11 1395 David Kuhn 46 38:37


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