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More FDNY members have died from World Trade Center illnesses than killed on 9/11

By Aaron Katersky, ABC News Sep 10, 2024 | 3:54 AM
Rescue 1, Manhattan’s elite lifesaving unit, which was one of the first firefighting squads to reach the twin towers after last week’s terrorist attack lost all of its members at the World Trade Center, New York City, Sep. 12, 2001. (Todd Maisel/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images)

(NEW YORK) — Twenty-three years after Sept. 11, 2001, illnesses linked to the World Trade Center terrorist attack have now killed more members of the New York City Fire Department than were killed on 9/11 itself.

On the day the Twin Towers fell, 343 members of the FDNY were killed, according to officials.

In the 23 years since, more than 360 FDNY members have died of World Trade Center-related illnesses, the department said. Twenty-eight of those FDNY deaths were over the last year, according to the FDNY Uniformed Firefighters Association.

“Those insurmountable losses did not end at the World Trade Center site,” New York City Fire Commissioner Robert Tucker said. “Instead, we have seen our members become sick because of time they spent working in the rescue and recovery.”

Of the 2,753 people killed at the World Trade Center, about 40% — 1,103 people — remain formally unidentified. There has not been a new identification of remains since January.

The National September 11 Memorial & Museum’s annual commemoration ceremony will take place on Wednesday, beginning at 8:30 a.m. ET.

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