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Steve Buscemi suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after volunteering with the FDNY during the 9/11 recovery efforts.
The 63-year-old was a firefighter at Engine Company 55 in New York City from 1980 to 1984, before becoming a television and movie star. When planes crashed into the World Trade Center in 2001, the actor from Tank dogs and Pulp Fiction, showed up at Ground Zero and did 12-hour shifts for several days alongside firefighters and first responders looking for survivors in the rubble.
“I kept calling the fire station,” he recalls on Mark Maron’s WTF podcast, “and of course there was no answer. Because I knew they would be there. [at Ground Zero]. Then I finally learned that five of the [the members of his firehouse] were missing. One of them was a good friend that I used to work with. “
So he grabbed his old gear and was dropped off at the site, where he “walked for hours, then found my company, found engine 55, which was working there. I asked if I could join them. I could tell they were a little suspicious. at first, but I worked with them that day. ”
And for four more days, he continued to help sift through rubble and move body bags.
Buscemi said he had “not experienced any health issues” as a result, while first responders at Ground Zero had “and I’m getting checked out.” However, he “definitely” suffers from PTSD.
“I was only there for five days, but when I stopped going and tried to relive my life, it was really, really difficult,” he said. “I was depressed. I was anxious. I couldn’t make a simple decision. All of these things.”
In fact, “It’s always with me,” he said. “There are times when I talk about 9/11 and I’m there right away. I start to choke and realize, ‘Ah, that’s still a big part of me.'”
Buscemi is executive producer of the new documentary Dust: The lingering legacy of September 11, which sheds light on the health issues that the firefighters who were at Ground Zero faced.
Buscemi also wrote an essay for Time detailing the unsanitary conditions at Ground Zero.
“Dust? It was more of a nuisance: sprayed concrete and who knows what clogging a face mask, so fast you work better without one,” he recalls. “Someone would say, ‘This is probably going to kill us in 20 years. “”
He continued, “Well, it didn’t take 20 years. Chronic debilitating illnesses arose even before the battery was cleaned up. Today, it is believed that more people have died from toxic exposure on the 9/11 site that they did not die that day. ”
While officials claimed the air was safe, “it was of course loaded with carcinogens. But if the truth had been shared with the firefighters I’m pretty sure they would have kept working.”
Buscemi also wrote: “” Never forget, “everyone said. Some people have no choice. What is surprising is who needs to be remembered,” noting the battle for the Fund to compensation for victims gets permanent funding.
“‘Never forget’, because people are still fighting. People are still dying.”
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