Mayo man becomes latest New York firefighter to die of 9/11-related illness

A 53-year-old Mayo man became the 276th firefighter in New York to succumb to a 9/11-related illness when he died of cancer last week.

Michael Lyons grew up in Meelick near Swinford and graduated from University College Galway in 1990 with a degree in history and English. In 1998 he joined the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY), and on September 11th, 2001, he helped rescue a man trapped in the rubble after two hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Center.

A total of 343 of his colleagues were killed when the centre’s towers fell after the planes crashed into them.

Born in Brooklyn, Lyons was one of four sons of Martin Lyons from Co Mayo and Margaret Lyons from Kilkenny. Following many visits to Ireland as he grew up, the family returned to Co Mayo for good in 1977, when he was aged nine.

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He began his FDNY career in Brooklyn, rising to captain in Division 15 there, a post he retired from in 2019 due to declining health.

Pasquale Buzzelli (52) was in a lift in the North Tower of the World Trade Center when the first plane hit it at about 8.46am local time, according to NBC New York. He recalled that, on the way to his 64th-floor office: "I felt the elevator shake violently and actually drop." He got out of the lift at about the 44th floor and started taking the stairs down.

However, as the tower began to collapse, “I curled up right in the corner in the foetal position and I thought, ‘There must be something heavy falling down through the stairs’,” he said. He ended up on top of a pile of rubble.

Discovery

As Michael Lyons later recalled it, Mr Buzzelli “was trapped. He was isolated on a slab of concrete . . . In any of four directions he had a long way to go down.”

He and other firefighters couldn’t believe they had discovered a survivor.

They succeeded in getting Mr Buzzelli down and brought him to hospital where he was treated for a broken ankle before being allowed home to his wife Louise, then seven months pregnant with their first child.

Mr Buzzelli had been convinced he was going to die. “I remember saying, ‘I can’t believe this is how I’m going to die. This is how it’s going to end. Please God, take care of my wife, my unborn child,’” he said. He and Lyons had remained friends ever since.

Lyons was given a full-scale FDNY funeral with pipe band on Monday at St Elizabeth of Hungary Church in Melville, New York, prior to cremation. A Mass is to take place at St Luke's church in Meelick at a later date.

He is survived by his two children Jillian and Aidan, his parents Margaret and Martin, his brothers Joseph, Patrick and Martin and their wives Siobhan, Donna and Aisling.