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About 900 firefighters took part in the Sky Tower Stair Challenge on Saturday.

About 900 firefighters and one dog climbed 51 flights of stairs in the annual Sky Tower Stair Challenge in Auckland on Saturday.

Leukaemia & Blood Cancer New Zealand general manager Georgie Hackett said firefighters from all over the country wore up to 25 kilograms of gear as they climbed the 1103 stairs as part of the challenge to raise money for the charity.

"It gets more amazing every year," Hackett said.

"There are some competitors that have actually done the event 14 times."

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Participants included Maaka McKinney, who walked 1800 kilometres from Bluff to Auckland to raise awareness for post traumatic stress disorder and depression in the fire, police and ambulance community.

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Firefighter Maaka McKinney took his dog Blaze up the Sky Tower with him.

McKinney walked the stairs of the Sky Tower with his dog Blaze – a first for the event, Hackett said.

"That was really special," she said.

"That was the first dog up the Sky Tower and it was nice they could complete their journey together."

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Paul Dennehy rehydrates with a bottle of water after finishing the stair climb.

Hackett said about $1.2 million had already been raised for the charity, just below the $1.26m that was raised last year.

But people still had time to donate.

"We are looking on track to beat the record which is really, really cool."

Hackett said it was the 14th time firefighters had donned their gear and walked the stairs of the Sky Tower to raise money for the charity.

The idea came from event organiser and firefighter Tony Scott who had seen a similar event in Seattle, Washington and wanted to bring it to New Zealand.

Hackett said the first event raised $88,000 for the charity "so it's grown a lot".

 - Stuff