Firefighters

A recent study in the medical journal Nature Medicine found that FDNY firefighters who worked at the World Trade Center site on and after 9/11 have an increased risk of all types of cancer, with a particularly elevated incidence of prostate, thyroid, and tonsil cancer, as well as melanoma. For thyroid cancer, for example, the […]

An upcoming deadline approaches for volunteer 9/11 first responders and recovery workers who worked in Lower Manhattan on 9/11 and in the weeks and months that followed.  Thousands of volunteers supported the search-and-rescue and recovery operations at Ground Zero, the Fresh Kills Landfill, barges between Lower Manhattan and the landfill, and the New York City […]

Clinton R. traveled more than 1,200 miles to support New York City’s recovery after 9/11. A firefighter with the Central Platte Fire Protection District in Missouri, Clinton wanted to contribute his experience as an emergency responder. He joined thousands of other responders from across the United States – volunteers who went to Ground Zero to […]

There were more than 100,000 union first responders who deployed to Lower Manhattan on and after 9/11, working tirelessly for weeks and then months on search-and-rescue and recovery operations. At the time, government officials claimed the air near Ground Zero was safe to breathe. Yet within weeks, many responders had developed “World Trade Center cough” […]

May 31, 2022 will mark the twentieth anniversary of the end of the cleanup at the World Trade Center site. Ground Zero burned for more than eight months after 9/11, as more than 100,000 union responders conducted search-and-rescue and recovery operations, starting New York City on the difficult and heroic path to recovery. These responders’  […]

February 27 marks the 47th anniversary of the New York Telephone exchange fire. Just after midnight on February 27, 1975, a short circuit in the basement cable vault at the New York Telephone Company switching center started a fire. At the time, fifteen employees were working in the building, located at Second Avenue and Thirteenth […]