The New York Police Department sergeant who led the 9/11 recovery effort at a Staten Island landfill “from day one” has died, police officials said.
Detective Sergeant Robert Fawcett died Sept. 14 from a 9/11-related illness and was buried Saturday, said Vincent Valleron, a longtime friend and president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association.
Fawcett, 64, served with the police department for 21 years.
“There's no other partner or friend I'd rather have around than you,” said Vallelong, who worked with Fawcett on the South Brooklyn detective unit.
“He worked at the landfill from day one and gave his life. He was there from the time the puddles were bubbling,” he said.
A lifelong resident of Staten Island, Faucett was “known for his unwavering dedication to his family and community,” his record states. Obituary.
He is survived by one daughter, three sons and five grandchildren.
“He was with Mr Fawcett when he went into hospice care and was by his side until the end,” the union leader said of Mr Fawcett's son, a nurse. “It was a tragedy.”
The 2,200-acre Freshkills landfill closed in March 2001, the last vestige of the city's waste management plant, but parts of the landfill were reopened on September 12, 2001, after Islamic militants crashed two commercial jets into the World Trade Center, destroying the twin skyscrapers and killing more than 2,800 people.
This is the worst attack on American soil.
For the next eight months, up to 18,000 tonnes of debris from Ground Zero was transported to the landfill each day, after which it was closed again for good.
Part of the dump has since been converted into a city park.
