Toxic dust: How helpers fell ill years later, the long aftermath of 9/11

Curt Andrews has had skin cancer removed eight times from his face, head and chest, the parts of his body exposed to the dust at Ground Zero 25 years ago.

The volunteer firefighter from Connecticut spent a week in the disaster zone after the World Trade Center attacks. He drove to New York with other firefighters, carrying a bag packed for two weeks. By the time they arrived, the towers had already collapsed. Ash-like dust reached his knees, and the streets around the site were filled with wreckage.

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We all knew that thousands and thousands of people were working there. So I told myself: I have to go there to help.

Andrews said the rescuers expected to hear calls for help beneath the collapsed towers. Instead, they mostly heard the beeping of devices belonging to firefighters who had been called to the World Trade Center before the collapse. More than 300 firefighters died when the towers came down. The devices sent emergency signals when they remained still, until their batteries eventually ran out.

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It was like walking through snow.

Near midnight, the crew found a living man with a steel beam lodged in his arm. Doctors gave him morphine, and rescuers amputated the arm before pulling him from the rubble. He survived, Andrews said, and was the only survivor he found during that week.

Andrews remembers that he and his colleagues did not wear protective masks. Their eyes became irritated, and he coughed heavily. He spent his first night on a curb, with no chance to shower throughout the operation. By the end, he said, they were completely covered in dust. Tens of thousands of people took part in rescue and cleanup work after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, and many later became ill.

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We were there to help others. We did not think about ourselves.