Former NYC firefighter: 9/11's toll on responders is still unfolding today

Richard Roeill, a former New York City firefighter and first responder on September 11, 2001, told France 24's "Spotlight" programme that the anniversary is far from a closed chapter — it is a recurring event that reactivates trauma each year. He explained that the health consequences of Ground Zero remain present decades later, as illnesses linked to exposure to toxic air continue to affect first responders.

A call for accountability

Roeill said responders were not properly informed at the time about the dangers they faced at the site. He is calling for accountability over this failure, alongside long-term healthcare provisions for those who were exposed to the contaminated air following the collapse of the World Trade Center towers.

From loss to solidarity

While his account includes difficult experiences — the deaths of colleagues, repeated funerals, and his own declining lung capacity — Roeill said he did not want his testimony to end on a note of anger. Instead, he recalled September 12 as a moment when distinctions of race, religion and gender briefly faded, replaced by a shared sense of common humanity. He presents that memory both as an ideal and as an implicit commentary on the present.

Despite everything he has endured, including his own health decline, Roeill said that knowing what he knows now, he would still have responded exactly as he did on the day. He also recalled visiting Rescue 4 roughly six months ago, where he observed the children of firefighters who died from 9/11-related illness now following in their parents' footsteps, describing the camaraderie among these "legacy" firefighters as a way of keeping their parents' memory alive.