By Tom Dalton
SALEM — Five Salem firefighters will do something Saturday that would send the average person to bed for a month, or worse, to the hospital.
They are running up 82 flights of stairs, a total of 789 steps, in the 2009 Race Up Boston Place, a charity event for the American Lung Association of New England. It begins at 10 a.m. at One Boston Place, the 41-story (i.e., two flights per floor) Mellon Financial Center in downtown Boston.
The local firefighters who are competing in the timed event are captains Dennis Levasseur and Kevin Koen and firefighters Wayne Silva, Kevin O'Boyle and Jamie Koen.
Among the 88 teams and 600 competitors are firefighters from Beverly, Danvers and Marblehead and one team called the "Beverly Fire Chicks."
While some competitors will be wearing shorts and workout clothes, the Salem firefighters will be lugging an additional 60 pounds of equipment, consisting of air tanks, fire coats and gear. They will have on face pieces and be breathing out of the tanks.
"You'd like to say you're running up stairs, but with the tank on and the gear it's not really running," Silva said.
The firefighters have been getting ready for the challenge, each in his own way.
Silva, 34, said he is working out on a treadmill, but not any more than usual. Of course, he also is a road racer and college hockey referee.
Some of the men have been running up more than 20 flights of stairs at Loring Towers, a high-rise in Vinnin Square. Jamie Koen, 49, who had hip surgery last year, has gone over to Salem Hospital to work out.
"They have a great flight of stairs," he said.
While they are raising funds for a good cause, the firefighters are also doing this just to stay in shape because they never know what they may face.
"You may have to go into a building and drag someone out, or you may have to work with a tank on while chopping into a wall, and it will tax you really quickly. So most of the guys agree being physically fit is a priority," Koen said.
"That's why we kind of put ourselves up to this little challenge," Silva said. "It's part of the job. It's a real-life scenario."
Each participant must pay a $35 registration fee and raise an additional $65. Anyone who wants to make a pledge to support the Salem firefighters, can make out a check to the American Lung Association and drop it off at Fire Department headquarters on New Derby Street.
