Babylon Town plans memorial for victims of 9/11-related illnesses

FDNY EMT Deputy Chief David Burke spent eight months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attack inhaling the toxic dust from the World Trade Center rubble as he aided workers in rescue and recovery efforts.

In October of last year, the West Babylon resident found out the devastating effects of that work when he was diagnosed with liver cancer that spread to his colon and then his bones. He died nine months later at age 61.

Now, Babylon Town will honor Burke and other residents who have died from 9/11-related illnesses with a memorial that will be built between Overlook and Cedar beaches.

“This is amazing,” Burke’s wife of 36 years, Rosemarie, 60, said of the memorial. “These people put themselves in there. They put their lives at risk, not knowing it.”

The number of people who have died from 9/11-related illnesses has already dwarfed the number of those killed on that day, and experts estimate there are still thousands more who will be diagnosed with or succumb to those illnesses in the ensuing years.

Babylon Town Councilman Terence McSweeney said the post-9/11 memorial aims to reassure families that those individuals have not been overlooked and to recognize the long-term human cost of that day.

“This is how the town can reflect the entire nation’s gratitude to the people who spent all that time digging and crawling on top of piles and just moving mountains,” he said. “This memorial will give everybody who lost someone an opportunity to mourn, reflect and maybe find support within their community.”

Near town's 9/11 memorial

The dedicated space will serve as a companion to the town’s 9/11 memorial, which was finished in 2005 and features metal plaques on stone walls honoring the 48 town residents who died in the attacks.

The town had originally planned to set the new memorial away from the current one, with a different design, McSweeney said. But in consulting with the families of residents lost in the 9/11 attacks, he said they wanted the memorials to be uniform.

“They’re very supportive of the idea,” he said, adding that he felt it important to consult with them. “I didn’t want the families to feel they’re being pushed aside.”

As a result, the new memorial will mirror the look of the 9/11 dedication, McSweeney said, and the town is consulting with the original designer. He said there is no cost estimate yet, but that the town will set aside money in its capital improvements budget. He said they are aiming to have it completed by 9/11 next year.

McSweeney, who has been an FDNY firefighter for more than 20 years, said he considers it his personal responsibility to make sure people don’t forget about 9/11 and use the lessons learned to prevent another tragedy.

“This is just another way that we can educate future generations on what happened that day and the long-lasting effects of basically war,” he said.

While some memorials have begun incorporating post-9/11 deaths, the Babylon Town dedication is believed to be one of the first on Long Island exclusively for town residents who have died after 9/11.

The memorial will honor not just first responders but “anyone who spent time at that site” who was exposed to toxins and died from that exposure, said Thomas Richardson, vice chair of the Deer Park Fire District and former chief of department for the FDNY who is helping lead the memorial effort.

A climbing toll

To determine who is eligible for inclusion, officials will use illnesses established as related to Ground Zero exposure by the World Trade Center (WTC) Health Program, which was created by the federal James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010.

The WTC Health Program provides medical monitoring and treatment for conditions related to the 9/11 attacks in New York, the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Almost 3,000 people died on 9/11 in the attacks. According to health program website, more than 130,000 responders and survivors have enrolled for health care related to 9/11 exposure. 

“We think that these post-9/11 illnesses could potentially continue to go on for the next 25 to 30 years,” Richardson said.

Wyandanch resident Dianne Lloyd lost her husband, Bobby, who volunteered at Ground Zero, and a brother, John Jack, who was a construction worker there, to 9/11-related cancers.

Her husband of 44 years died in 2023 at age 77. He went down to Ground Zero starting just days after the attack to volunteer his time as a chaplain to provide comfort to those working on the pile, she said. His first related illness was colon cancer in 2005. He was diagnosed with leukemia in 2018, and she watched him slowly deteriorate over the next five years.

Lloyd, 74, said she is glad the memorial will honor her husband, brother and others who died after 9/11 and that it could help give family members some sense of closure.

“They were willing to go in there and help people and they gave their lives,” she said. “They should be recognized."