Friday, July 18, 2025

Firefighters attempt to beat record and climb 53 stories in 11 minutes

Climbing over 1,400 stairs as fast as possible was the goal for some 250 firefighters who participated in a tower running race in Mexico City’s second highest skyscraper on Saturday.

Weighed down with protective gear and equipment weighing 25 kilograms, firefighters from the capital, several states and even the United States participated in the carrera vertical, or vertical race, held at Torre Reforma, a 246-meter-high skyscraper on Paseo de la Reforma, Mexico City’s most emblematic boulevard.

To complete the course, firefighters had to ascend 53 floors by climbing an exhausting total of 1,421 stairs.

Some impressive times were recorded but no one was able to break the existing record of 11 minutes, the newspaper El Universal reported.

The women’s champion for a second consecutive year was Citlalli Ramírez, who finished in 18 minutes and 42 seconds. “In an emergency, our real work starts after going up the 53 floors, that’s when the hard part starts,” she said.

The men’s champion was Agustín Herrera, who completed the course in 13 minutes and five seconds, meaning that he climbed an average of 1.8 stairs per second.

Another competitor was Diego Méndez, the sole participant from México state. After completing the ascent in 15 minutes, he told El Universal he didn’t feel tired as he had been training for months.

“In the course of the race I felt good, calm,” Méndez said. “… It was a very good race.”

Édgar Ramírez, who crossed the finish line in 18 minutes, described the race as an “unforgettable experience” that really got his adrenaline pumping.

“You want to give everything,” he said, adding that his training included running and doing weights.

Juan Manuel Pérez, director of the Heroico Cuerpo de Bomberos, as the Mexico City fire department is called, described firefighters as high-performance athletes who are accustomed to going up stairs at a rapid pace. “The everyday life of a firefighter is to climb,” he said.

With reports from El Universal, Reforma, Noticieros Televisa, Excélsior and UnoTV

Have something to say? Paid Subscribers get all access to make & read comments.
two people walkin gby a for rent sign

Can rent control stop gentrification? Mexico City officials plan to find out

4
Political leaders in the nation's capital have reached into their anti-gentrification toolkit and come up with an approach that goes straight to the heart of the problem.
cell phone with Uber

Mexican authorities slam Uber’s price hike: ‘Unilateral and irresponsible’

1
The ride-hailing app insists that the rise is necessary after recent labor reforms gave its drivers full employee rights, including IMSS membership.
The achoque is a critically endangered salamander that’s the cousin of the famous axolotl.

Lake Pátzcuaro’s fishermen answer call to rescue the achoque, the axolotl’s endangered cousin

2
Fishermen in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, have teamed up with local scientists to raise achoque hatchlings and re-release them into the lake in an effort to stabilize their declining population.
BETA Version - Powered by Perplexity