This was submitted by Lt. Sean Curran, captain of the WFD Stairclimb Team
WAKEFIELD — On Saturday, March 29 the Wakefield Fire Department Stairclimb Team participated in the 2025 American Lung Association’s Fight for Air Climb-Boston. The team last participated in 2019. This was the team’s first time back at the event since it was canceled for Covid back in 2020. This year’s team was comprised of six members: Team Captain Lt Sean Curran, Lt Jerry Sancinito, FF Joe Treacy, FF Sam Carr, FF William Curran and Reading FD Capt Paul Dalton.
The Fight for Air Climb-Boston is a fund raising event put on by the American Lung Association. A charity that is near and dear to all firefighters. The event takes place in a 41 story Boston high-rise, 1 Boston Place.
The WFD team competed in the “Full Gear” Firefighter Division. This consisted of members in full firefighting gear: bunker pants, jackets and liners, boots, helmets and SCBA climbing the stairs for 41 floors against the clock. Each team member recorded an individual time and the fastest three member’s times were added together to make up the team time. This was a change from previous years where the top five member’s times were added up.
The results: As usual, the fastest team member was Lt Jerry Sancinito with a time of 7min 44sec. His time was good enough for second place overall; second place out of 160 firefighters. Not too shabby for a guy fighting off a respiratory infection. Great job Jerry!
The rest of the team finished as follows: FF Sam Carr 9:15, 21st overall; FF Joe Treacy 10:02, 37th overall; FF William Curran 11:52, 80th overall; Lt Sean Curran 12:34, 98th overall; and Capt Paul Dalton 13:49, 108th overall.
The team score after adding up Lt Sancinito’s, FF Carr’s and FF Treacy’s times was 27:02 which put the team firmly in fourth place out of 30 firefighter teams. The top three fire departments: 1st place was Lewiston, ME FD 24:26; 2nd place was Newton FD 25:57; and 3rd place was Andover FD 26:44. Fourth place for Team WFD after a six year hiatus is very respectable. Great job team!
Fund raising: As of April 1, the event has raised $222,196.56 in total. The WFD team raised $4,250 making them the tenth overall fund raising team and the seventh firefighter fund raising team. Lt Sean Curran led the team in fund raising pulling in $2,330 making him the seventh overall individual fundraiser. Donations can still be made for another week or so. To do so, go to the “Fight for Air Climb-Boston” page and follow the prompts to find the WFD team page where you can make a donation to the team or to an individual team member. The team thanks you all for your support!
As always, the WFD Stairclimb Team would like to thank all of our generous friends and family who consistently support us in our fund raising efforts. We couldn’t do it without you. It’s a long way to the top. See you on the stairs!