They Didn’t Count the Cost

It’s been 13 years since the attacks of Sept. 11 toppled the twin towers and plunged the city into its darkest days, and we’re still saying good-bye to the victims.

In a sad occurrence last week, three retired New York City firefighters—two of whom were childhood best friends—died within hours of each other of cancers related to their heroic efforts to recover bodies from the toxic rubble at Ground Zero.

The deaths of retired Lt. Howard Bischoff, 58, and retired firefighters Robert Leaver, 56, and Daniel Heglund, who died one day before his 59th birthday, raise to 92 the toll of firefighters who died from illnesses stemming from rescue and recovery efforts that lasted for months after the attacks.

The work was dangerous, it was traumatic and it was, ultimately, deadly. But the Fire Department heroes, along with police, emergency medical personnel, construction workers, lay and ordained chaplains, and countless volunteers, labored with tireless dedication and risks to their own health and safety to get it all done.

These brave workers didn’t count the cost, but too many of them paid the price.

New York’s Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro called the three latest deaths “a painful reminder that, 13 years later, we continue to pay a terrible price for the department’s heroic efforts on September 11th.”

And the Fire Department did indeed pay a terrible price, right from the start. On the day that Al Qaeda terrorists flew hijacked airplanes into the World Trade Center towers leaving a total of 2,753 people dead, the department counted 343 of its own among them—including Father Mychal Judge, O.F.M., the beloved fire chaplain who was the first victim to be positively identified.

The firefighters union says more than 850 firefighters and ambulance workers are fighting 9/11-related cancers, and more than 30,000 people are receiving treatment under the WTC Health Program, according to the office of Sen. Kirsten Gillebrand.

The effort continues in other ways as well, with New York’s medical examiner using advanced DNA-matching techniques in an attempt to positively identify the remains of more than 700 people. Earlier in September, Belgian citizen Patrice Braut, who was 31 when he died, was formally identified as that country’s only victim. His mother Paola was in New York for this year’s 9/11 memorial ceremony, holding a photograph of her son to her heart.

The three firefighters who died last week were memorialized last Friday and Saturday at funeral services in the New York area. The Funeral Mass for Firefighter Leaver was offered at St. Francis of Assisi Church in West Nyack; the Mass for his old buddy, Firefighter Bischoff, was offered at St. Aloysius Church in Jackson, N.J. Lt. Heglund’s service was at the Centerport Fire Department on Long Island.

FDNY Capt. Paul Heglund said his deceased brother responded to the 9/11 attacks with Rescue Company 4 in Queens, then worked for months afterward in the recovery effort. Capt. Heglund told the Daily News that his brother said before he died that he had no regrets about working at Ground Zero.

“We were firemen,” Capt. Heglund said. “That’s what we do.”