Seaford firefighter climbs for a cause

Lauren Cusumano was only 6 when terrorists knocked down the Twin Towers, but it’s a moment that she vividly remembers. Now a volunteer firefighter, the Seaford resident has found a way to honor the 343 members of the fire service whose lives were lost in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

On March 13, Cusumano took part in the New York City Firefighter Stair Climb at the World Trade Center. She climbed the 72 floors of 4 World Trade Center, which opened in November 2013. Not only did she make it to the top, she did it with her gear and air pack on.

All the firefighters who participated that day represented one of the 343 who died in the attacks. Cusumano did the climb in honor of Thomas Haskell Jr., a New York City firefighter and one of five Seaford natives killed on 9/11. She wore a tag with his name, picture and the firehouse he belonged to.

The event began at 6:30 a.m. with participants gathering for a moment of silence by the pools that mark the spots of the former Twin Towers. They then separated into three groups — red, white and blue. Cusumano was part of the blue group, which consisted of firefighters climbing using their breathing apparatus. She made it to the 58th floor before her air ran out, then climbed the remained 14 floors with the air pack on but without using the mask.

“You’re trying to make your air last while you’re doing this exercise,” Cusumano said, adding that one of the biggest challenges during the climb was measured breathing so the air would last as long as possible.

She was part of a team of 15, which mostly consisted of career firefighters from North Carolina. Cusumano met the team’s leader, Touche Howard, at a climb at Citi Field last year, and he asked her to join the team.

“Our team was very impressed with her hard work and dedication,” Howard said, “especially because she had to train on her own without the resources and support system that most of the rest of us had.”

Cusumano did most of her training by waking up at 4 a.m., going to the local gym and doing the stair climber while wearing a weighted vest. Another member of her team was Kaitlin Mackie, of the Massapequa Fire Department.

According to Cusumano, 17 women participated in the New York City climb, and only three did it with their gear and air packs.

Cusumano recalling the images on television after the Sept. 11 attacks and seeing her parents crying, she said feels a responsibility to honor those who were lost, particularly those she now shares a profession with. “What those men and women did that day was amazing,” she said. “I want to participate in more climbs around the country to commemorate these individuals.”

A woman amongst men

Cusumano is the lone female firefighter in the small Seaford Fire Department, which she joined in October 2014 after being part of the Explorers program. She said that participating in the climb was important not just to honor the deceased firefighters, but to show the role that women play in the fire service.

“It has really changed me,” she said of being a volunteer firefighters. “I like it a lot, but it definitely brings some challenges.”

Cusumano, 20, spends her days in classes at Molloy College studying to prepare for a career in a female-dominated profession — nursing — while volunteering her time in a male-dominated field. She said she has generally felt accepted in the Fire Department but the amount of time she spends in school has cut into her ability to volunteer and to prove herself to the other firefighters.

When Cusumano was in high school — she graduated from Seaford in 2013 — she was interested in learning CPR. She attended a meeting of Seaford Explorer Post 680, which is for teens interested in learning about the fire service, and that day they were doing firefighter operations. “I tried it out and I realized how much I loved it,” she said.

Cusumano said that firefighting is one of the most trusted professions and because of that she takes great pride in being a volunteer. She noted the little kids with toy fire trucks who look up to firefighters.

As the first member of her family to be a firefighter, she said her parents were nervous at first, but told her that if she wanted to do it, she had to work hard. Her father, a personal trainer, instilled that value in her and she remembers him saying, “If you want to play with the boys, you’re going to have to train like the boys.”

“It’s something that your really have to want,” Cusumano said. “It’s definitely not for the faint of heart.”