Firefighters

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 […]

Firefighters risk their lives daily to help save others from danger. They bravely run into harm’s way while others flee in the opposite direction. This selfless act defines their profession. Another part of the profession — that often isn’t so obvious — is their risk of developing mesothelioma. Almost all buildings — both residential and […]

Dennis Smith, a longtime New York City firefighter and bestselling author, passed away on January 21. He was 81. Raised on the East Side of Manhattan, Smith joined the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) in 1963, when he was assigned to Engine Company 292 in Queens. In 1966, Smith was transferred to the busiest […]

Firefighters who worked at the World Trade Center (WTC) site on or after 9/11 have a 13 percent higher risk of cancer, especially prostate and thyroid cancer, according to a recent study. The study, published in the journal Occupational & Environmental Medicine, also found the WTC firefighters were diagnosed nearly four years earlier than other firefighters […]