9/11 responder Luis Alvarez dies after battle with cancer
Luis Alvarez went through nearly 70 rounds of chemotherapy after breathing in toxic dust at Ground Zero.
The wake for the onetime New York City police detective who became a champion in the fight for the Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund featured many highlights of his life.
Det. Luis Alvarez, who died Saturday of colorectal cancer, appeared with former “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart last month to plead with Congress to extend the compensation fund. The New York Post reported that a copy of his congressional testimony was posted on a door at the funeral home on Long Island, N.Y.
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“We hope and we pray that Congress heard his message and that he will have died a happy man for his efforts for the Victim Compensation Fund,” Phil, his brother, told the Post.
Phil added: “I can guarantee you that if we need to go down there again, I will go down there again. I will have my brother’s hat, I will have his coat, and I will keep going until his message and his bill gets passed.”
Next to the congressional testimony was a ragged American flag, one of the two that survived from Ground Zero, the news outlet reported.
Alvarez will be laid to rest Wednesday. His funeral will be held at the Immaculate Conception Church in the Queens neighborhood of Astoria.
Alvarez spent three months working amid the World Trade Center rubble after the 2001 attacks.
He learned he was going into liver failure after finishing his 69th round of chemotherapy, and gave his last-ever interview on "Shepard Smith Reporting."
Alvarez told Smith he had no regrets, and was simply doing his job when he became a first responder at Ground Zero.
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"It's my job as an NYPD detective to respond to emergencies. So, no hesitation," he said.
"We went down, spent about three months down there doing the bucket brigade, doing rooftop detail, trying to find remains. I did what every other FDNY, NYPD, EMS worker -- everybody. I'm nobody special. I did what all the other guys did. And now we're paying the price for it."
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