Another Firefighter Passes From 9/11 Causes.

Newsday - Obituaries:

PRINCIOTTA Jr. - Salvatore , of NYC, suddenly on May 14, 2007, as a result of post 9/11 lung complications. Beloved son of Salvatore and the late Joan. Dear brother of Charles (Lisa) and Joseph (Christine). Proud uncle of Charles II, Christopher, Salvatore, Alexandra, Joseph Jr. and Nicholas. Loving nephew of Rosalie and the late Raymond Downey. He also leaves behind many cousins, friends , and the Oak Street Family. He proudly served the FDNY for 15 years and was one who responded to 9/11. He was a recipient of the Thomas R. Elsasser Memorial Medal. He also enjoyed being part of the FDNY football team as well as being an avid photographer. Family and friends may visit the Claude R. Boyd-Caratozzolo Funeral Home, 1785 Deer Park Ave., Deer Park, NY on Saturday and Sunday from 2:00-4:30PM and 7:00-9:30PM. Mass of Christian Burial on Monday at 10:15AM at Ss Cyril and Methodius RC Church. Interment to follow at St. Charles Cemetery. In lieu of flowers donations may be made in his name to: Engine 33 Ladder 9 Relief Fund, 42 Great Jones St., New York, NY (in care of Steve Nuzzi).

This marks the 3rd 9/11 first responder to pass in the last 2 weeks. The first two appeared in the Daily News on pages 42 and 20, the passing of this firefighter was noted only in the Obituary section of Newsday.

http://www.legacy.com/Newsday/DeathNotices.asp?Page=Lifestory&PersonId=88145064

Ground Zero hero loses cancer fight

Detective sued city to change pensions after 9/11

BY ALISON GENDAR, ERNIE NASPRETTO and JORDAN LITEDAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Monday, May 14th 2007, 4:00 AM

A retired NYPD street detective who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer after toiling at Ground Zero died of the disease yesterday, his wife and the detectives' union president said.
Robert Williamson, 46, died at his Nanuet, Rockland County, home four years after his March 2003 diagnosis, said Michael Palladino, president of the Detectives' Endowment Association.
Beginning the day of the 9/11 attacks and for three months after, Williamson spent 16-hour days performing rescue and recovery operations at the World Trade Center site, his sergeant, Michael Kelley, said yesterday.

"He was down on The Pile every single day" for the first two months after the twin towers' collapse, and then five days a week in the third month, Kelley said.

"Some guys took breaks; he was down there digging," Kelley said. "It didn't faze him a bit."
Williamson was among more than 1,700 cops and firefighters who sued the city to change the pension system after the disaster, Palladino said, adding that the married father of three worked "well beyond the required 40 hours at Ground Zero to qualify for a disability pension."
"He is one of the first officers who was deemed disabled as a result of his assignment on 9/11, and now that disability has claimed his life," Palladino said.

Sounding sad but stoic, Williamson's widow said the Emergency Service Unit cops never forgot her husband, even though he retired in 2002. The couple's children are 10, 12 and 15. "They provided transportation to and from the hospital and brought oxygen tanks and a hospice to the house," Maureen Williamson said.

NYPD Supervising Chief Surgeon Eli Kleinman would not comment specifically on Williamson's death. "As far as we know, there are no particular cancers in the medical literature related to 9/11," Kleinman said. "We're following it very closely."

Williamson's attorney Michael Barasch said Williamson and other Ground Zero workers were "as much victims of the disaster as the 343 firefighters and 2,700-odd people who died" on 9/11.

But before he died, Williamson said he would have worked at the site again. "Did I know the air was not safe? Yes. Would I go down there again today knowing that? Yes. A lot of people made sacrifices," Williamson told the Daily News in 2004. "I might be a casualty of 9/11, but at least I had a few more years with my family."

A funeral is planned for Wednesday.
jlite@nydailynews.com


http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2007/05/14/2007-05-14_ground_zero_hero_loses_cancer_fight-2.html

CANCER CLAIMS 9/11 COP

By PERRY CHIARAMONTE and MURRAY WEISS

May 8, 2007 -- A detective on Mayor Bloomberg's security detail died yesterday of cancer - an illness his family and union officials believe can be traced to his work in the toxic debris at Ground Zero after 9/11.

Detective Kevin Hawkins, 42, died at 2 a.m. at the hospice unit of Calvary Hospital in The Bronx, said Vic Cipulla, vice president of the Detectives Endowment Association.
He'd been diagnosed with kidney cancer in September.

Cipulla said Hawkins and his family had filed a claim that would seek verification that his illness was in the line of duty, making him eligible for a disability pension.

"Members have come down with various forms of cancer and there are many still to come," he said. The claim was prompted by a law - passed in 2005 and named after Detective James Zadroga, who died of lung disease after his work at Ground Zero - that ensures public workers can get a disability pension if their illness is traced to the recovery effort.
Hawkins worked at Ground Zero for two months.

"Kevin brought a quiet reserve and a sense of duty to everything he did," a statement from Bloomberg said. "He fought this disease with the same integrity and strength that he displayed serving our country and our city."

Hawkins, who joined the department in 1987, also served two tours of duty in the Gulf War in 1990.

"He was a member of the United States Marine Corps who served his nation in war, as he did the Police Department, with pride and dedication," Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.
Hawkins is survived by his wife Marie, and three children.

perry.chiaramonte@nypost.com

http://www.nypost.com/seven/05082007/news/regionalnews/cancer_claims_9_11_cop_regionalnews_perry_chiaramonte_and_murray_weiss.htm

9/11 Survivor Dies After Long Depression

nbc4.com

POSTED: 12:12 pm EDT May 12, 2007
UPDATED: 12:17 pm EDT May 12, 2007
SEVERNA PARK, Md. -- Marcie Bents survived the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon. But family members said she never recovered from the trauma of that day.
Bents was found dead in her Severna Park home Tuesday morning. The cause of death is not yet known, but relatives say the 48-year-old woman had lost the will to live.
They said Bents holed up in her house, watching CNN and fretting about bombs and planes.
Her sister, Kathy Gonce, said Bents "was afraid 24-7."
Bents, an information technology specialist, was in her second-floor office of the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, when American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the building. About 15 of her co-workers died.
She returned to work but was granted medical leave in 2004, and people who know her said she gradually got worse.