NYPD Detective Luis Alvarez and FDNY Firefighter Ray Pfeifer both died of World Trade Center-related cancer, and both died after spending many of their final weeks begging Congress to fund the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund. Now the bill to authorize the money to the fund will bear their names.
The new name of the bill will be the “Never Forget the Heroes: James Zadroga, Ray Pfeifer and Luis Alvarez Permanent Authorization of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund Act.”
“They both knew they are dying, but they had this sense of duty to everyone else who was sick,” said Rob Serra, another firefighter sick from 9/11 who is currently lobbying Congress using Ray Pfeifer’s wheelchair. “They both had this quality where they were able to accept what was happening to them, but still keep fighting, which kind of embodies the whole spirit of 9/11 and the 9/11 community. We kind of knew it was a losing battle when we were down there, and we kept fighting.”
The original bill was named for NYPD Officer James Zadroga, who died of site-related pulmonary fibrosis, reports Michael McAuliff for the New York Daily News.
