20th anniversary of September 11 – Firefighter Peter Gancy’s radio transmission known as the 60 Minutes Special recalls the heroic FDNY

FAMILIES CRY FOR FIRST RESPONDERS WHO DIE AFTER THE ATTACK

Detective Luis Alvarez’s brother, who died of 9/11-related cancer 15 years after the attacks, warned New Yorkers were breathing deadly toxins from Ground Zero for months after the Twin Towers fell.

Phil Alvarez, a former cop and now director of advocacy and education for 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund (VCF) claims, told The Sun “people will continue to get sick” decades later the atrocity.

Luis, or “Lou” as his family called him, was a man of few words – but when it came to securing justice for first responders exposed to dangerous debris, he spoke out and carried the question before the legislators in Washington DC.

His activism culminated in the “Never Forget the Heroes: James Zadroga, Ray Pfeifer and Luis Alvarez Permanent Authorization of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund Act” (2019) which extended the VCF permanently.

Luis died 15 days after the bill was passed Congress, leaving behind his wife and three sons, now aged 18, 21 and 29.

Luis’s unit was dispatched to Ground Zero in the afternoon of September 11th, and he “went straight to the job” as the rescue mission quickly turned into a recovery operation after the deadly al Qaeda strike.