'It unveiled our frustration.' FDNY union leaders demand answers after release of 9/11-related documents
New York City’s fire unions are demanding answers after the city unveiled hidden documents detailing the government’s response to 9/11.
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A day after New York City released 9/11-related documents that suggest city leaders were aware of toxic air quality at the time, FDNY unions shared their anger about why it took 25 years for this new information to come out.
“It unveiled our frustration with four administrations that denied access to documents that would have solidified our argument to the federal government that we needed funding for health care,” said Lt. James Brosi, president of the FDNY Uniformed Fire Officers Association.
Brosi was working at the FDNY’s Bronx base as a fire marshal on the day of the attacks.
“You could hear the radio transmissions through the interoperable frequency we have between fire stations," Brosi said, "and you could hear the urgency in people's voices. You could hear the significance of the incident.”
More than 340 members of the FDNY died on Sept. 11, 2001, while 453 members have died from 9/11-related illnesses and the number continues to grow.
“We just buried another member yesterday from World Trade Center-related illnesses," said Robert Eustace, president of the FDNY Uniformed Firefighters Association. "So when people look back 25 years, it's every day for us. And we have thousands of members that are still sick and still dying.”
The 170,000 pages of records documenting the government’s response to the attacks and their aftermath were released by the city Tuesday. Some firefighters claim this now helps confirm the aid they had been asking for from the government.
“We didn't have that evidence. So all we could do to prove to the federal government that we were dying was to bring dying people to the federal government and show them," Brosi said. "We needed better screening. We needed better compensation for those people who lost their jobs and those people who lost their lives."
The unions say they will continue to review the documents for more information that could potentially help with treatments and diagnoses for FDNY members with health concerns.
“It's a real shame that it took this long to have this to be released," Eustace said, "but anything that can happen more forward, we just - hopefully we can bring more information and more light to it.”
