NEW YORK — A bill signed by New York Gov. Cuomo was a dream come true for 13 men whose life goal was to follow in their firefighter fathers’ footsteps.
NY Daily News reported that last week Gov. Cuomo removed the last barrier of the “Legacy Law” that prevented the men from getting extra credit on the most current firefighter exam owed to them because their dads died from 9/11-related illnesses.
Seven of the 13 hires are set to join the next FDNY class that starts in days.
“It was always our intent to grant those who qualified for it the legacy points,” said state Sen. Marty Golden (R-Brooklyn).
The rest of the group — and several others affected by the law who didn’t initially come forward — will join future classes in accordance with their ranking on the FDNY hiring list, according to the report.
Their battle for their extra points started when they got letters from officials telling them their fathers’ deaths — which occurred years after 9/11 from Ground Zero-related illnesses — didn’t merit legacy points, according to the report.
Because of a loophole in how the original law was written, only children of firefighters and cops who died on the day of the attack were included.
Michael Sullivan, whose firefighter dad John Sullivan died of pancreatic cancer caused by his work at Ground Zero, plummeted from 284th place on the hiring list to somewhere in the 11,000s, according to the report.
“My dad was the type of person who gave everything to his firehouse, the job was everything.… How could this be true?” Sullivan, 29, said.
The group pushed a bill through in September and the fire unions lobbied intensely on their behalf, according to the report.