LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A Las Vegas man who said he contracted cancer from his time as a volunteer firefighter at ground zero is now asking for the community’s help with funeral and burial expenses.
“This is a photo of me at ground zero,” David Bliss said, sharing a photo. “Standing right where the South Tower used to be.”
Bliss walked 8 News Now through the time he will never forget.
“Now we’re coming up on 24 years,” he said. “And it still weighs heavy on me.”
He shared everything he remembers about the days he spent at ground zero after the September 11, 2001, attacks.
Bliss now lives in Las Vegas, but at that time, he was a volunteer firefighter in Ohio. The day after they saw the planes hit the World Trade Center, he said he and his best friend drove to New York City, where they joined the New York Fire Department’s Station 54.
“I asked them if we could go in and help,” he recalled. “They asked us if we had our gear.”
He spent two weeks conducting search and rescue in the rubble, which eventually turned into recovery efforts.
“I would think I would hear someone say, ‘Come rescue me, come rescue me,”‘ he recalled. “And I didn’t.”
The experience took a mental and physical toll that has stayed with Bliss decades later, including a cancer diagnosis a few years ago.
David Bliss says he contracted cancer from his time as a volunteer firefighter at ground zero is now asking for the community’s help with funeral and burial expenses. (KLAS)
David Bliss says he contracted cancer from his time as a volunteer firefighter at ground zero is now asking for the community’s help with funeral and burial expenses. (KLAS)
David Bliss says he contracted cancer from his time as a volunteer firefighter at ground zero is now asking for the community’s help with funeral and burial expenses. (KLAS)
“There’s no cure for me,” Bliss said. “Because it keeps spreading.”
He now has stage four lung cancer caused by the carcinogens at the site, and despite his efforts to fight, it has spread to his pancreas and liver.
“Knowing I’m dying of cancer. Would I do it again?” Bliss said. “Yes, most definitely.”
He now needs to pay for his funeral and burial expenses, so he filed several claims with the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund.
“I keep getting denied. Same thing, did not prove proof of presence,” Bliss said. “Even though there are eyewitnesses who remember me in there.”
Proof of presence can be determined through medical records or eyewitness statements, according to the VCF website, which Bliss told 8 News Now he has provided.
He has also tried to get help from Congress, the attorney general and even the president, but regardless, nothing is happening.
“There are a lot of us that have literally given our life up for this country,” Bliss said. “And this country is turning their back on us.”
Therefore, Bliss and his wife hope the community can step up to help them, all to remember Bliss and the countless others who made the ultimate sacrifice.
“After a while, they started putting banners up, ‘We will never forget,’ Bliss said. “Well, it didn’t take people long to forget.”
8 News Now sent an email to the Victim Compensation Fund, which the Department of Justice oversees, but did not receive a response by the time this article was published.
Bliss and his family have set up a GoFundMe to help raise funds.
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