EMS Providers Who Assisted With 9/11 Clean-Up Told Their Work Can`t be Verified

Fifteen years ago they toiled in the smoking pit of Ground Zero and other 9/11-sites — and now they have to prove it.

Several hundred EMS workers who registered with the city as part of the WTC clean-up effort decades ago are now being told the FDNY can’t confirm their participation.

In a letter dated May 12 from the NYC Employees Retirement System, workers were told they had 60 days to get their own proof, such as “log books....affidavits from fellow workers or supervisors ... photographs ... or badges or passes” from specific sites.

“Please be advised .... that your employing agency could not confirm that you participated at the WTC site, the Fresh Kills Landfill, the city morgue or temporary morgue on pier locations,” said the letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Daily News.

The letters — which arrived during National EMS Week — threw many on the force into a tailspin.

“I sent in my notification form years ago, and got a notice back that NYCERS received it. I go every year for an annual WTC checkup, and now they’re telling me I don’t qualify?” said one confused medic.

In the chaotic days after 9/11 many city agencies pitched in to help search the rubble for bodies as well as evidence.

The search wasn’t just at Ground Zero but extended to other sites, including the Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island.

Some EMS workers were assigned to staff the locations in their ambulances — to be on hand in case someone needed medical help.

Their assignments were dispatched through FDNY computers — creating a digital record.

But many others were part of large labor pools bused into the various WTC sites for the grim task of sifting for remains.

Their assignments weren’t dispatched through the FDNY system, sources said.

Other records were haphazard or lost over the years.

NYCERS is required by law to demand these specific types of proof from workers when their employers can’t confirm their participation.

The workers also have to be interviewed by a NYCERS committee, which looks at their proof and listens to their story before making a decision.

Those who are approved remain eligible to apply for enhanced health coverage if they get diagnosed with a 9/11 illness. Their families would also be protected by line-of-duty death benefits if they die from a 9/11-related sickness, a NYCERS spokeswoman said.

It’s taken NYCERS this long to get to the EMS as they tried to vet all the 10,000 clean-up notification letters it received from city workers after 9/11.

Some agencies had better records than others — and some were very disorganized.

“We get a list of all employees from a specific agency, and we send that list to the agency to ask for verification they did rescue, recovery or clean-up,” a NYCERS spokeswoman said. “It takes a lot of time and there’s a lot of back and forth.”

If the agency can’t find proof, the burden falls to the worker.

But NYCERS said it was never a hard no — especially if a worker found themselves sick.

“If someone were not approved but then developed an illness that appeared to be 9/11-related, they could try again,” the spokeswoman said.

Registering with the city to be eligible for a WTC disability is also not a guarantee of enhanced coverage and benefits. Workers who develop a health problem still have to get approval from NYCERS medical board before it can be deemed a 9/11-related illness, the spokeswoman said.

The FDNY said it was aware of the NYCERS letters.

“We're assisting in any way we can to provide supporting documentation for any members being asked to provide evidence of their work at any of the designated WTC Participation sites,” said FDNY spokesman Frank Dwyer.

NYCERS' process only affects EMS because FDNY firefighters are part of a different pension system.

EMS officers union head Vincent Variale said he thought it was a “disgrace” to make his members relive 9/11 again 15 years later.

He said he hoped FDNY could reconsider how it was verifying workers’ participation.

That the letter came during National EMS Week was a particular affront to EMS rank and file union head Izzy Miranda.

"All over the country we honor the dedication and commitment of EMS for all they do for the communities they serve, he said. "I was in Albany today for an annual ceremony to add the names of fallen EMS to the Tree of Life. We put four names up for the last year, one was a WTC-related death. Of the 53 names on the Tree, about 20 are FDNY and the majority of those deaths are 9/11-related," Miranda said.