First Responders

Today, February 8, 2022, would have been NYPD Detective James Zadroga’s 51st birthday. A native of Arlington, New Jersey, and Barasch & McGarry client, Detective Zadroga was a 9/11 first responder whose premature death demonstrated that the air near Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan was toxic. His illness provided crucial evidence linking Ground Zero toxins […]

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 […]

The 9/11 community includes half a million people, from first responders to Lower Manhattan office workers to teachers and students at area schools. Everyone breathed in the 9/11 toxic dust, increasing their risk of 68 different types of cancer and dozens of respiratory illnesses. Sadly, we recently learned of the passing of retired NYPD detective […]

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 […]

Almost three-fourths of the FDNY personnel who worked at Ground Zero on and after 9/11 have developed a long-term illness related to their exposure to airborne toxic chemicals at the World Trade Center site, according to a recent study.  Of the 15,200 FDNY firefighters, paramedics, and other workers who were there, at least 11,300 have […]

We are just weeks away from the twentieth anniversary of September 11, 2001, a day our nation will never forget. We will never forget the bravery of the first responders – the firefighters, police officers, emergency medical workers, and search-and-rescue teams who saved thousands of lives as the Twin Towers were collapsing, then searched the […]