West Islip event a reminder to ailing 9/11 first responders of benefits still available

As a Suffolk County fire coordinator on Sept. 11, 2001, Anthony LaFerrera sent volunteer firefighters from the Town of Babylon to Ground Zero. 

Nearly a quarter-century later, LaFerrera attended a meeting Wednesday night at the West Islip Fire Department where he learned about the range of federal and state benefits potentially still available to those who spent days, weeks and months in lower Manhattan after the attacks.

Now, said LaFerrera, 67, of North Babylon, he sees it as his duty to make sure first responders to Ground Zero are informed, including about how they could be eligible for workers' compensation from New York State.

"I’m going to have to notify those people," he said.

LaFerrera sat among two dozen 9/11 first responders who were at the fire department to learn about various benefits entitled to them. Officials from the New York State Workers' Compensation Board and the two entities forged from the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010 — the World Trade Center Health Program and The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund — provided deadlines, covered conditions and other information necessary for claims.

Volunteer firefighters on Long Island may be less familiar with the various benefits to cover their illnesses and injuries related to their time at Ground Zero, said Julie Broihier, a presenter Wednesday night, and the administrative deputy director of the Stony Brook World Trade Center Health and Wellness Program, which serves local enrollees in the federal WTC Health Program.

"People think of first responders as people for whom that’s their job, so the volunteers sometimes discount themselves," Broihier said.

The Stony Brook program, based in Commack, serves about 16,000 career and volunteer first responders from Long Island. It came as a result of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, which was started in 2010 to provide a coordinated response to the increasing number of survivors struggling with serious illnesses, according to a Newsday story at the time. 

Wednesday's free information session was arranged by Gov. Kathy Hochul's office to ensure those who answered the call nearly 25 years ago "receive every benefit they may be entitled to," according to a news release.

"Volunteer firefighters who put their lives on the line to serve others are among the most inspiring members of our communities," Hochul said in the release. "We are deeply grateful for their service and dedicated to seeing that their needs are met, should they require treatment or assistance recovering from injuries and illness linked to their service at the World Trade Center site."

At the state level, eligible volunteer firefighters can get New York State workers' compensation through their fire department’s insurance policy, Joseph Cavalcante, a worker advocate with the NYS Workers’ Compensation Board said during the presentation Wednesday. They have until Sept. 11 of this year, marking 25 years since the attacks, to register with the compensation board to be able to receive a benefit immediately or at a later date.

First responders and survivors of the attacks on Manhattan and the Pentagon, as well as the Shanksville, Pennsylvania, crash, can enroll in the federal WTC Health Program, which counts more than 143,000 members as of March 31. If a medical provider determines an enrollee has a "WTC-related health condition substantially likely to be related to [their] 9/11 exposure," they seek program certification, meaning their necessary treatments, prescriptions and medical devices are fully covered, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which oversees the program.

About 43,100 responders to the terrorist attacks have been certified under the program as having aerodigestive disorders, such as asthma and gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD, while approximately 24,600 have received treatment through the program for some form of cancer.

But even if they feel healthy, advocates pushed the volunteer firefighters gathered to start enrolling.

In April 2025 advocates and lawmakers on either side of the aisle decried the firing of Dr. John Howard, the longtime head of the WTC Health Program, on the heels of other layoffs at the program. At that time, fears loomed that funding could not keep pace with growing number of ailing first responders. One year later, New York elected officials and advocates secured funding for the program through 2040, successfully pushed for several employees to be reinstated and continue to push to fill vacancies in the program, Newsday reported last month.

Yet Thomas Richardson, the former chief of department of the FDNY, told Newsday Wednesday that he is "always worried about the program."

"Every time it comes up to be extended or continued, it’s always a battle for money. Everybody’s competing for the same money, right? But this program is so important to tens of thousand of people, so I would hope that our elected officials all the way up to the federal level understand the sacrifices that have been made."