Shrewsbury firefighters step to it for towering charity achievement - watch the video

White Watch at Shrewsbury Fire Station decided on the challenge as their way to get involved a national fundraising day for the Firefighters' Charity.

The nine firefighters took it in turns to climb the equivalent of the 220 floors of the towers that were hit by the 9/11 tragedy in 2001. A total of 2,996 people were killed in the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon building in Virginia, and in a plane crash in Pennsylvania.

More than 340 New York firefighters lost their lives as they took to the stairs of the Twin Towers to try to reach those trapped on the upper floors. Members of White Watch put on their full breathing apparatus kit and each completed more than 500 steps on a step machine in the Darwin Centre in Shrewsbury. They all said they had not realised how hard the task would be. Watch manager, Pat Johnson, said: "It was a stark reminder of what happened on September 11, 2001.

"The New York firefighters were carrying equipment and dealing with smoke. They knew there were hundreds of people trapped.

"We do our training on stairs in the kit because if there is a fire in a multi-storey building the lifts will be out-of-order." He said that money raised from the challenge would go to help the UK's Firefighters Charity that helps retired or injured firefighters and their families.

It also funds rehabilitation centres at a cost of £9 million a year.

The first to take to the stepper was 34-year-old Adam Statham from Shrewsbury, a firefighter for eight years.

"I am fit, you have to be to be a firefighter, but that was a tough challenge," he said.

"I knew I would finish it but it took a lot of determination."

Other fire stations across the region held charity car wash days and open events to raise funds.