ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 Alan Hirschkorn, a retired New York City Fire Department inspector who responded to the 9\/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, is continuing public safety work in Central Florida despite long-term health problems from the response.<\/p>\n
Hirschkorn said he was working in Midtown Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2001, when he got a radio call to go to the World Trade Center.<\/p>\n
Like many first responders, Hirschkorn said he rushed toward Ground Zero before knowing exactly what had happened.<\/p>\n
Once he arrived, the conditions were difficult to see through, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got over there, and I said, ‘Holy moly, people are running; the plane hit the building’,\u201d Hirschkorn said. \u201cYou couldn\u2019t see if it was day or night with all that soot flying around.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hirschkorn spent five months working at Ground Zero, sifting through debris that was piled several stories high.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat debris was glass, building material \u2014 everything that fell out of that building \u2014 so you had to watch out when you were climbing on that so that you didn\u2019t fall into that,\u201d Hirschkorn said.<\/p>\n
He said the soot covered his uniform and affected his breathing.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou see this uniform \u2014 you couldn\u2019t tell it \u2014 the soot on there \u2014 coughing and breathing in all that stuff,\u201d Hirschkorn said.<\/p>\n
He said he lost fellow first responders on 9\/11 and has seen more people die in the years since from health problems connected to the dust and debris.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot just the first responders, but people who lived and worked in the area were affected from breathing all that stuff in \u2014 and it\u2019s a slow death,\u201d Hirschkorn said.<\/p>\n
He said he has lung damage,\u00a0chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and post-traumatic stress disorder after his work at the site. He said he checks in with a psychiatrist each week.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I sleep at night, I dream, and sometimes I think about 9\/11 and I wake up screaming,\u201d Hirschkorn said. \u201cI still have those flashbacks.\u201d<\/p>\n
After moving to Central Florida, Hirschkorn became a volunteer with the American Red Cross, local fire departments and other agencies.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe go out and give information on fire prevention and safety \u2014 let them know to have a working smoke alarm,\u201d Hirschkorn said.<\/p>\n
Staying focused on safety work helps him keep going, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I focus on something and I\u2019m not thinking about it (9\/11), I\u2019m OK,\u201d Hirschkorn said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all about helping people, saving lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
The American Red Cross honored Hirschkorn with a Good Samaritan Award, and the organization will continue to give the award to others in the future in his name.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 Alan Hirschkorn, a retired New York City Fire Department inspector who responded to the 9\/11…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[767,2967,274,770,28,12716,115,1335,768,139,141,140,277,278,835],"class_list":["post-396097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-app-community","tag-app-public-safety","tag-app-top-stories","tag-community-news","tag-florida","tag-jeff-allen","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orange-county-fl","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-public-safety","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}