William Quick spent each day from September 12 until mid-November 2001 at Ground Zero with his comrades of Ladder 134 from Far Rockaway, Queens, assisting in the rescue and recovery efforts after the horrible events of 9/11. Quick, a veteran of 23 years with the Fire Department of New York (FDNY), survived the horrid and tragic scenes played out on a day which killed many of his fellow firefighters.
Unfortunately, the retired city firefighter could not escape Ground Zero’s toxic dust, which caused him to develop one lung infection after another. By January 2003, his damaged lungs forced his retirement from the FDNY, and he reluctantly left his brothers at Ladder 134. Quick died of lung disease on Tuesday, January 18th at only 55 years of age. He left behind his wife Lisa and 17-year-old twins, Ryan Mary and William Henry, according to the New York Daily News.
According to Quick’s wife, Lisa, he was there when both towers came down. The Quick family, of East Atlantic Beach, Long Island, has a picture of William which shows his shirt, helmet, and gloves covered in dust, standing amid the World Trade Center rubble. Before he passed away, he was attached to 24/7-life support that gave him the oxygen his lungs could no longer take from the air.
Lisa Quick said her husband never had issues with his lungs before the Ground Zero work, but that the lung disease forced him to retired. She said she was happy about the recent Congressional passage of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, which could pave the way for health care and compensation for New Yorkers who have been sickened by the dust from World Trade Center attacks.
A wake will be held Thursday and Friday, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., at Macken Mortuary in Island Park, L.I. His funeral is at 9 a.m. Saturday at St. Ignatius Martyr in Long Beach, L.I.
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