Forever etched in our minds – the desperate sounds and images of September 11th, 2001.
New York and the Manhattan skyline – for years a symbol of hope and new beginnings.
This seemingly invincible city made vulnerable.
I’m going to meet two ex-policemen Gary and Mike, they were both first respondents
at 9/11 and like a lot of people who spent some time at that rescue effort they now have
some very serious illnesses related to their time there. It seems to me there are a lot
of people going to look at a very large hole in the ground but not a lot of people are
talking about the people that are dying several years on.
Guys like Mike and Gary spent months at Ground Zero. Initially in a desperate search for
survivors then months sifting through the debris looking for clues to this horrendous
crime. I met Mike and Gary in a sunny church yard that was once in the shadow of the Twin
Towers, it was a place of solace in the days and weeks after the attacks. These two men
very rarely come to the site and find being here many years on extremely difficult.
It’s the country’s deep dark dirty secret, it’s the city’s deep dark dirty secret,
it’s as if … I hear all the time “let’s forget about it and let’s move on” and
no we’re not going to forget about it and we’re not going to move on. Would you tell
that to a World War II veteran? Or a Korean veteran or a Vietnam veteran? You can’t.
While firefighters received compensation thousands of New York City Police are unable to work
and are having to survive on very little money. Mike was one of the lucky few to retire on
full pension but he’s determined to fight for his fellow servicemen starting a police
aid foundation. They’re fighting to prove that the illnesses are related to time spent
at Ground Zero.
There’s a misunderstanding that “well you should have got sick right away” that’s
not the case, most of us started getting the residual effects in 2003, that’s when the
hack started, the nasal drip and the post traumatic stress disorder and with post traumatic
stress disorder you’re not lying in bed with your gun in your hand thinking oh my
God the towers are going to come down you become anti social, you lose interest in things,
your personal hygiene takes a turn for the worse, you don’t interact well with people.
I didn’t come out of my bedroom for three weeks one time.
The pain is still raw and the events of that day are etched in their minds.
I got here that night and I don’t think I left for about four weeks.
When I got up to the scene actually the most serious thing I can’t get out of my head
is the hundreds of locator beacons that were on the firemen going off and they were in
the pile and I can’t forget that …. I’m sorry but it’s burnt in my memory and that’s
a sound I’ll never forget and then looking down while we were digging all the bodies
and human parts didn’t bother me but what bothered me was the pictures of the children
with their parents and knowing that they’re probably gone and that’s my nightmare every
night.
Since it was mayhem there was no semblance of order whatsoever and it was kind of an
apocalyptic type of feeling, everything was black, everything was dark.
That blackness was toxic dust and it took months to settle and it permeated everything
– skin, lungs, the blood stream causing debilitating and lingering illnesses still
being identified today.
People would make trays of food and bring them down here and leave them and then the
volunteers and firefighters and cops would open it up and once they took the first spoon
full that was all contaminated. I remember telling a firefighter from Pennsylvania “you
really can’t be eating that” and he said “I’m starving” and I go “that could
be your last meal” because huge particles of fiberglass, glass, dust, concrete, human
remains were flying everywhere.
I can’t breathe much longer! I don’t have much air please help me!
There was no equipment for us to dig so whatever we stole from the day before or what we had
on us that is what we used, there was no mask, the masks didn’t come till October. I remember
we were raiding home depots in Brooklyn trying to get paper masks for us to breathe. I wore
an American bandana for two months around my face and I guess that’s my fault but
we were never taught to have respirators on and Scott Packs.
Did you think about what effects this might have on your health at the time?
You don’t want to sound John Wayne’ish but I really didn’t think about it, I should
have because I contracted a rash on my body my first day and I think it was about the
third or fourth week I kind of got the sense that psychologically I was going to have an
issue with this but not for the time period I was there.
But I was there for three months – for what? There was no recovery, it was just a pile
of dust, the impact of those buildings coming down there was nothing there. We were picking
up human remains that were flattened, pulverized.
Thousands of first responders have had or continue to experience mental illness, respiratory
disease, various cancers and other illnesses related to their time at Ground Zero.
Tanya What are some of the things that you’re having to deal with still to this day?
Binge drinking, you know I went through an anger part and I became cynical after a while
and it wasn’t until I got out and sought help that I realized I was putting my family
through hell, I mean it was a living hell for my family and my kids and I couldn’t
do that to them anymore so I sought help and that’s what we advocate for now for first
responders. We have guys that haven’t left their houses in four or five years – can
you believe that? Four or five years! And not one person from the police department
calls them.
2,750 people died on September 11th 2001 but 700 people have died in the years since. It’s
estimated that up to 70,000 people may have long term health problems due to the dust
inhaled.
Over 3,000 police officers have put in for disabilities, out of the 3,000 maybe 200 have
gotten theirs, I’m one of them that have gotten a disability. We already know what
our fate is, that’s pretty sad, we already know what we’re going to die of and how
we’re going to die, now put yourself in our position. I’m not sitting here complaining
about that, we know that, we just want them to give us what’s due to us, that’s it.
Congress has proposed a bill that will allocate $650 million for medical bills.
It might ease the symptoms but it will never restore the physical or emotional wellbeing.