Total number of FDNY members who’ve died from a 9/11-related illness nearly equals how many died at Ground Zero: officials

A heartbreaking milestone haunts this year’s 9/11 anniversary — 341 FDNY members have now died of Ground Zero-related illnesses, nearly equaling the death toll for city smoke eaters that perished in the 2001 terror attack.

“Twenty-two years ago the loss of 343 firefighters was an unimaginable number and sadly the day we pass that milestone is quickly approaching,” Andrew Ansbro, president of the FDNY Uniformed Firefighters Association, said at a news conference Friday.

“It is inevitable.”

“We’ve attended 40 or so funerals this year for the members that we lost and we know it’s not going to end. So for us it’s every day or every week — but for the general public we have this press conference to remind everyone that it is ongoing and that funding is still needed,” he said.

James Brosi, president of the FDNY Uniformed Fire Officers Association, warned that “we may exceed” the immediate 9/11 death toll “even before the anniversary.”

In February, Brosi said he lost his own father, Joseph Brosi, who worked at Engine 88 in the Bronx and battled both lung and bladder cancers after 9/11.

Brosni worries now about those who are still sick.

“In the early anniversaries that immediately followed 9/11, our primary focus was on the people we had lost because that was our greatest concern,” Brosi said.

“And as the years passed, and as the latency period passed for those illnesses that will now affect us, our concern is shifted not only with the people we lost, but the people we’ve lost since, and the people that are now struggling.”

He credited the World Trade Center monitoring program and the medical treatment his dad got for making “a dramatic impact on his quality of life,” recounting there’s been an additional $600 million added “to grow and build funding so that people would have access to this care.”

“We are never going to be able to undo this exposure,” Brosi said.

“But we do have the ability and the obligation to limit the effects of this for as long as humanly possible so that people can live fruitful lives.”

“Being affected with cancer is the absolute worst thing that can happen to you. Worrying about how to pay for it is probably worse than that.”

Ansbro acknowledged the numbers of those dead and dying from 9/11 exposure “are staggering.”

“Three hundred forty-three times two is almost 700 people –that’s about 6-7% of the entire department at the time,” Ansbro said.

“It’s important to let people know that their neighbor, maybe someone who’s suffering, for them it’s still on going,” he asserted.

On Wednesday, the FDNY added 43 new names to its World Trade Center Memorial Wall commemorating firefighters, paramedics and civilian support staff members who’ve died from illnesses related to the rescue and recovery efforts after the 9/11 strike, ABC News reported — the second largest group to be added to the memorial wall since it was created 12 years ago with 55 names.