Steve Buscemi.Photo: Nicholas Hunt/Getty
Twenty years after 9/11, Steve Buscemi is looking back at the toll the disaster site had on those who worked to find survivors.
At Ground Zero, he wrote, the dust from the fallen towers was “more of a nuisance” than the toxic chemicals they would later be considered.
“Pulverized concrete and who-knows-what that clogged a face mask, so fast you worked better without one,” Buscemi wrote. “Somebody’d say, ‘This is probably going to kill us in 20 years.’ "
“Well, it didn’t take 20 years,” the actor continued. “Debilitating chronic conditions surfaced before the pile was even cleared. Today more people are thought to have died from toxic exposure at the 9/11 site than died that day.”
Jin Lee
“It was of course thick with carcinogens,” Buscemi added of the overwhelming layer of dust that surrounded the site. “But had the truth been shared with the firefighters, I’m pretty sure they would have kept right on working.”
TheFargoactor recalled that being in the frontlines at the World Trade Center “felt good.”
“I was on the site for less than a week, but it wasn’t until I got home that the magnitude of it all caught up with me,” he recalled. “I was already seeing a therapist, and though it was almost impossible to process the enormity of what had happened, just having someone with whom to sit with all the feelings was a consolation. It’s not something first responders usually get. Announcing vulnerability is a hard thing for anyone, but especially for people whose primary identity is as a protector.”
RELATED VIDEO: The Children of 9/11: 20 Years Later
In July 2019, Stewart celebrated with first responders after the Senate passed a bill that extended funds for 9/11 victims, responders and their families almost into the next century.
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On Sunday, Stewart andPete Davidsonwill put on a star-studded comedy show supporting 9/11 charities that will take place at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
source: people.com
