Ground Zero volunteer Barry Galfano dies

A former New York City police captain, Barry Galfano, 57, of Brentwood died Sunday of cancer, about a week after a video describing his months working at Ground Zero was posted online.

"I was never that scared," Galfano, a 25-year NYPD veteran, said in the video of his first hours at Ground Zero after the Twin Towers collapsed. He said he was on vacation on Sept. 11, 2001, and had just returned home from the gym when he learned of the attacks and rushed in to be with the Emergency Services Unit, which he had joined just three weeks earlier. The video is posted on the Captains Endowment Association website and on YouTube.

Galfano, who described himself as a "health nut," said in the video that he knew the air was toxic and feared he would end up with cancer 20 years later, but never expected the diagnosis would come so soon.

He retired from the NYPD in 2006 and was diagnosed in 2008 with a cancerous tumor in the small intestine.

His sons and friends described him as a role model and mentor.

"He was a hero," said his son Daniel, 28, of Babylon. He described how his father, who never smoked or drank alcohol and worked out regularly, had run two marathons shortly before learning he had cancer. Even after the diagnosis, he ran "multiple" 5K races, Daniel said, to raise money for an endowment in honor of Sgt. Keith A. Ferguson, one of Galfano's officers who died in the line of duty in 2004. Galfano played baseball and softball and was a "huge Mets fan," Daniel said.

"I always wanted to be him," said his son Matthew, 24, of Bay Shore, who said his goal is to become a police officer. Matthew said his father "was very supportive; he always pushed us to strive for better."

Galfano was "a cop's cop," said Glen Klein of Centereach, a retired detective who worked under him for nine months at Ground Zero. "He never let the fact that he was captain go to his head."

Despite his failing health, last year Galfano joined fellow first responders on a bus ride to Washington, D.C., to lobby for passage of the Zadroga act, which became law in January. The law reopens the victims compensation fund for first responders and provides funding for monitoring and treatment. "As sick as he was, he got on the bus," Klein said. "He never complained once."

In addition to Daniel and Matthew, survivors include a son, Christopher of Montauk; a daughter, Patrice Newman of Islip; his parents, Trudy and Leonard Galfano of Bethpage; his sisters, Francine Harris of Tellico Plains, Tenn., and Roseanne Hawk of Madisonville, Tenn.; and two grandchildren.

Visitation will be from 2 to 4:30 p.m. and 7 to 9:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday at Chapey & Sons Funeral Home in East Islip. The funeral is scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday at St. Patrick Roman Catholic Church in Bay Shore, with burial at St. Charles Cemetery in Farmingdale. The family has requested donations to St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center in Smithtown.

With Sarah Crichton