Photo courtesy of the New Hampshire Fire Academy and EMS Brittani Rutherford and James Marron, two of the recruits featured in the state's fire academy video series, work with a hose during last summer's recruit school. Don Himsel

Brittani Rutherford, a recruit in the 2018 summer recruit school at the state’s fire academy, learns how to safely handle a ground ladder at the academy’s Concord campus. Rutherford was part of a group of recruits featured in a web-based video series examining the personal experiences of recruits during the program. Don Himsel / Courtesy

Brittani Rutherford goes through Fire Academy training in 2018. Don Himsel / Courtesy

Brittani Rutherford’s visit to Ground Zero 13 years ago showed her the way.

People were crying, quiet, respectful. Rutherford was crying. Candles flickered. And across the street, at 142 Liberty, stood the FDNY 10 House, pulverized that day 21 years ago Sunday. The House lost five firefighters before serving as a rest and recuperation station and a command post as well.

Rutherford, who lives in Dunbarton, was 17 at the time. She had already fallen in love with firefighting as a little girl, and this was the final motivation she needed to pursue a career as a full-time firefighter and EMT.

That’s why she’s running up and down the bleachers Sunday at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium in Manchester. She and others will run for about 1½ hours, until they’ve done the equivalent of 110 stories, the height of the World Trade Center buildings.

It’s a national thing, a tribute each year, with firehouses across the country participating. This marks Rutherford’s fourth Sept. 11 stair climb.

And although she’s yet to pass the written test at the New Hampshire Fire Academy needed to become a full-time firefighter and EMT, she’s finished her grueling training there and was featured in a seven-part documentary, a close look at four recruits and their battles to keep their heads above water, not to mention thick foliage, mud and dirt.

She feels like an insider, and she is, part of that tight-knit community. Her visit to Ground Zero sent her on a journey that continues today. The effect was palpable.

“It was awful there,” Rutherford said, describing the terrible sadness that overwhelmed her. “But it inspired me to (be a firefighter) because they risked their lives saving strangers. It was beautiful as well as horrific.”

She grew up in Derry. She’d hear a siren and run to the window to see the shiny red trucks whizzing by. She was a budding firefighter in high school.

Ground Zero clinched the deal, giving her the final boost of confidence she needed to realize that fighting fires was where she belonged.

The Fire Academy was brutal. Rutherford attended in 2018, a three-month summer program that met every weekday for eight hours. The worst part, Rutherford said, was climbing a building three stories high with 70 pounds of gear on her back. She had to extinguish each fire, meaning she needed to carry an additional 30 pounds of hose up those stairs.

The men, she said, were running up the steps. Rutherford needed a helping hand, literally, when the weight and the stress forced her back a step or two.

She was never alone, though.

“The few times I struggled and fell back, the instructor would catch my back,” Rutherford said.

“The men are running up the stairs, and I’m dragging what feels like a dead body with me.

“They would put me back on my feet. If someone falls behind, everyone in the group stops.”

Rutherford figured she’d have trouble climbing while carrying heavy items. She weighs 112 pounds. She grew frustrated but never once entertained the thought of hanging up her helmet.

“I was never close to giving up,” Rutherford said. “I never went home and told my parents that I was done.”

Instead, Rutherford focused on what she was good at. Petite, she fit into most nooks and crannies.

“I am better at search and rescue, like in car wrecks,” Rutherford said. “The big guys with muscles might have trouble getting in there.”

Sunday, Rutherford will climb 110 stories to honor the the 343 firefighters who died that day at Ground Zero. She hasn’t had trouble finishing. She’ll carry fewer pounds on her back than she did at the Academy, estimating it to be only 20 to 30 pounds while running on the bleachers.

She had no idea she’d become so dedicated to a particular cause. Sponsorship money collected goes to the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation to help families who lost someone on Sept. 11.

Rutherford was only 10 when the towers fell. She only grasped the magnitude in later years.

“I was homeschooled and I remember my mom crying and calling family members and it was all very chaotic,” Rutherford said.

“I did not understand what was going on. My mom shielded me from the news for the rest of that day. At the time, I didn’t know anything that day.”

She knows now. She climbs in the names of the fallen 343.

Seven years later, she made her trip to New York City and cried. She had found her calling, for sure.

“I love it,” Rutherford said, “because it pays tribute to all those fallen firefighters. If I was in those buildings when they came down, I would hope someone would climb for me.”

Ray Duckler, our intrepid columnist, focuses on the Suncook Valley. He floats from topic to topic, searching for the humor or sadness or humanity in each subject. A native New Yorker, he loves the Yankees and Giants. The Red Sox and Patriots? Not so much.

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