9/11 fatally poisoned firefighter from Ocean Township, but he battled for 23 more years

On Sept. 11, 2001, Michael Cioffi was off duty from his job with the Fire Department of the City of New York when the planes crashed into the World Trade Center. He hustled from his Monmouth County home into lower Manhattan, arriving shortly after the twin towers fell.

Drawing on his side job in the trucking business, he commandeered a nearby front-loader and bulldozed a path to the wreckage pile so rescue workers could search for survivors.

From there, Cioffi was assigned to the “burrowing” team and spent a week straight digging into the quarter-mile mountain of rubble before finally retuning home. He would report back to Ground Zero for several months, until the pile finally was cleared.

It was a duty that, 23 years later, cost Cioffi his life. The 62-year-old Ocean Township resident died Saturday after battling pancreatic cancer, prostate cancer, and several other illnesses that the World Trade Center Health Program deemed directly related to the post-9/11 cleanup.

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That didn’t stop him from working as a New York City firefighter until 2020, when he was placed on disability due to respiratory problems. He’s the latest of many post-9/11 casualties caused by the toxic air at the site.

“Unfortunately these guys doing their service — doing what they were driven to do — those two buildings coming down killed them 20 years later,” said Cioffi’s wife, Sylvia Cioffi. “But he did get 20 more years to do the things that he loved, and more people were saved and more property was saved because of Michael.

"Although he might have been killed by those buildings, it took a long time. He was able to do a lot of good stuff for people in those two decades until he started getting sick. A lot of them were like that, his brothers from FDNY and all the first responders who were down there.”

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Raised in Long Branch, Michael Cioffi served 14 years with the Long Branch fire department before taking a job with New York City’s. On 9/11, his battalion lost 15 firefighters in the twin towers. He suffered a head injury from falling debris, got stitched up and went back to the pile.

“Nobody was more headstrong that Michael Cioffi,” Sylvia Cioffi said. “That kept him alive through these illnesses.”

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In 2020 he was placed on disability after regular checkups through the World Trade Center Health Program determined that he had lost 25% of his oxygen capacity.

“He tried hiding it,” Sylvia said. “They wouldn’t clear him.”

He also suffered from sarcoidosis — an immune system overreaction that can scar the lungs — “from asbestos he breathed in,” Sylvia said. Then came the cancer diagnoses.

“He was an ox, and longevity is in his family,” she said. “He didn’t have a single condition that didn’t have the chemical formula of 9/11. Doctors back then said in 20 years we’re going to see a whole new round of people sick, and that’s exactly what happened.”

In retirement, Cioffi continued to enjoy his favorite activities — spending time with family and listening to Bruce Springsteen. He traveled to Italy twice, even taking in a Springsteen concert there.

“I asked him a hundred times, ‘Would you do that again?’” Sylvia said of working on the 9/11 pile. “And he was like, ‘Do what? It was just another day of work.’ That was his calling.”

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In addition to his wife, Michael Cioffi his survived by six children: Michael Luciano Cioffi, Sofia Cioffi, Maryella Cioffi, Christopher Sylvia, Jack Sylvia and Emma Sylvia.

Sylvia Cioffi said fellow firefighters were omnipresent during his final days.

“You learn what brotherhood means when you’re going through this,” she said. “There was never a moment for the 10 days we were in the hospital that I didn’t have 10 firefighters in our room. I don’t know how anybody goes through this without a fire department behind them.”

Visitation will take place at Woolley-Boglioli Funeral Home in Long Branch Wednesday from 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. A mass of Christian burial will take place Thursday, 11 a.m. at St. Michael’s Roman Catholic Church in Long Branch.

Jerry Carino is community columnist for the Asbury Park Press, focusing on the Jersey Shore’s interesting people, inspiring stories and pressing issues. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Firefighter from Ocean Township dies from 9/11 illness 23 years later