On Wednesday, New York City firefighters were slamming City Hall for the decades-long delay in releasing documents about the air quality of Lower Manhattan in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.
They’re arguing that the information may have been key to helping thousands of New Yorkers who have suffered from serious illnesses in the aftermath of the terror strike.
For some firefighters, like Bobby Eustace, the president of the Unified Fire Officers Association, 25 years feels like yesterday.
“For 25 years, we have continued to bury our brothers and sisters,” he said at a press conference Wednesday in Manhattan.
Which is why, he says, it hurts that much more to learn that for years City Hall may have known more about potential health hazards — and chose to hide it.
“Many people have gotten great credit for being champions of the workers, and responders down at 9/11 were also some of the same people that hid this information from us,” James Brosi, the president of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association, said.
They’re furious it’s taken five mayors to release 170,000 pages — compelled in part by a court case, including internal city documents and environmental testing — after years of claiming the records do not exist.
A representative for former Mayor Rudy Giuliani did not respond to a request for comment. Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg also declined to comment.
Former Mayor Bill de Blasio told NY1 via text message that he has “no recollection whatsoever” of receiving a records request, despite the existence of a 2021 letter addressed to him sent by two congressional members.
Former Mayor Eric Adams’ administration repeatedly denied records requests, but through a spokesman, Adams denied delaying their release.
“The people sent into that toxic environment deserve to know the full truth about what was in the air. They deserved to know the risks, deserved protective equipment, honest warnings, medical monitoring and a government that treated their health and urgency as they treated the city’s emergency,” Eustace said.
Then a fire marshall in the Bronx, Brosi, along with his firemen brother and father, helped with the cleanup. His father later passed away from Sept. 11-related cancer.
“My brother was down there as the South Tower collapsed. My father was down as Building 7 collapsed. And I had come shortly after the collapse of Building 7, and then walked on the pile continuously for the days, weeks and months after,” Brosi described.
Although 343 firefighters died on Sept. 11, over 450 have since succumbed to disease. The latest just days ago when Gerard Reilly, of Manhattan’s Ladder 22, died from a 9/11-related illness.
“There’s just a tremendous amount of conditions that keep coming up and arising, and so hopefully with these new documents, we’ll be able to link more conditions to that and alleviate some of the pain and suffering,” Eustace said.
Now, there’s an ongoing Department of Investigation probe. But questions remain, such as why earlier this year, the Mamdani administration argued in court that the records didn’t exist, including the now-infamous “Harding Memo.”
Mamdani also included $34 million in the latest city budget to assist with the records release.
“I just want the facts, and the decision-making and by whom to be revealed,” Brosi said.
“A lot of things have been politicized. There [are] a lot of events we are going to, time after time, so everybody can get their spot in the sun. We’re just here to support our members,” Eustace added.