Joseph Greco was a 37-year-old NYPD narcotics detective when the towers fell, and the work that followed at Ground Zero and the Staten Island landfill left him with lung damage severe enough to end his career. Twenty-five years later, the retired detective lives in Boca Raton, where he still keeps fragments of World Trade Center flooring, photographs from the pile, and his old police badge as reminders of what he saw. He now spends his time volunteering at a local food pantry, handing out baloney and ham sandwiches to families in need.
On September 11, 2001, Greco was pulled from his narcotics assignment and sent into lower Manhattan by bus and ferry, according to WPEC. He escorted people out of damaged buildings floor by floor as fires burned and structures collapsed around him at Ground Zero. While sorting debris at the Staten Island landfill, the outlet reports, he encountered one of a fallen NYPD officer's guns, and he came across children's stuffed animals buried in the debris.
Weeks of Sifting Through Toxic Debris
Greco's work did not end at Ground Zero. He went on to help with recovery efforts at the Staten Island landfill, where responders searched for human remains and personal belongings pulled from the wreckage, the station's report notes. The scale of that operation was staggering: recovery workers at the Fresh Kills Landfill screened more than 1.4 million tons of World Trade Center debris down to a quarter-inch in diameter between September 2001 and July 2002, according to the New York City Department of Sanitation.
Twenty-five government agencies logged 1.7 million hours of labor at that site, ultimately recovering 4,257 human remains, more than 54,000 personal items, 1,358 vehicles, and $78,318 in currency, the department's records show. It was slow, painstaking work meant to return whatever could be found to victims' families. Greco was one of thousands of searchers who spent that time sifting fine rubble by hand.
A Promise Made From a Hospital Bed
The physical toll caught up with him. Greco developed serious lung problems linked to his toxic exposure, and he retired from the NYPD at age 37 because of the damage, per WPEC's account. In September 2013, Newsday reported that Greco was taking 11 medications for asthma tied to his recovery work, with the cost reaching $1,800 a month before the World Trade Center Health Program, created under the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, began covering his treatment.
Greco has since testified before Congress in Washington, D.C., advocating for first responders suffering long-term health effects from the attacks. He has said he is stable but still sick, and he made a promise to himself to do good if he recovered from a hospital stay tied to his condition. That promise has shaped how he spends his retirement in Boca Raton.
Federal Program Still Growing a Quarter-Century Later
The Zadroga Act, enacted in January 2011, created the World Trade Center Health Program and reactivated the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund to provide medical treatment and financial relief to ill responders, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The law is named for NYPD Detective James Zadroga, who died of a 9/11-related respiratory disease. Enrollment in that program has kept climbing rather than shrinking: more than 145,000 responders and survivors nationwide were enrolled as of mid-2026, per the CDC's most recent published statistics.
That growth has come with funding fights. In February, Congress passed the 9/11 Responder and Survivor Health Funding Correction Act to close multibillion-dollar shortfalls that had threatened to force cuts in treatment, as Hoodline previously reported. Retired responders like Greco are part of the reason lawmakers keep revisiting the program's finances a quarter-century after the attacks.
From Ground Zero Debris to a Boca Raton Pantry
Greco is far from alone in relocating south. Legal and medical advocates estimate that thousands of 9/11 first responders and survivors have moved to Florida, with most settling in South Florida while continuing to manage long-term toxic exposure illnesses, according to WLRN. Many continue to manage chronic respiratory conditions like the ones Greco developed.
In Boca Raton, Greco now volunteers at Boca Helping Hands, distributing sandwiches and helping families access food. The organization distributed more than 3.5 million meals through its hot meal and pantry bag programs across Palm Beach County in 2025, assisting more than 40,000 clients, according to the group's own figures. Boca Helping Hands continues to serve people seeking food assistance.
Greco has said that serving people is rewarding, and that he will never forget the September 11 attacks or the course they set for the country. WPEC reports that he still keeps the physical reminders of that day close by in Boca Raton — pieces of flooring, photographs, his badge — even as he has built a new routine around handing out food to strangers who need it.
