By Tina Moore and Emily Saul
A lauded FDNY hero who championed ill first responders’ rights and spent eight months working at Ground Zero following 9/11 lost his battle with cancer Sunday.
Ray Pfeifer was 59, and passed following an 8-year struggle with the disease, authorities said.
“Ray Pfeifer was a true fighter who bravely battled fires as a New York City Firefighter and fought tirelessly for all first responders who – like him – suffered from World Trade Center related illness,” FDNY Commissioner Daniel A. Nigro said in a statement. “The entire FDNY family deeply mourns his loss.”
Pfeifer, who retired in 2014, leaves behind his wife and two children.
The smoke eater came down with stage-four cancer in 2007, later losing a leg and kidney as the cancer spread.
The bill, passed in 2010, extends health care coverage for those afflicted until 2090.
Maypr Bill de Blasio awarded Pfeifer the key to the city in Jan. 2016.
Details of the service are to come
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