NEW YORK (WCBS 880) -- A NYPD detective who spent weeks at Ground Zero during and after 9/11 sifting through debris has died due to health issues linked to her time there.
Barbara Burnette died on Dec. 30 at 58, according to the Daily News. The NYPD detective spent 23 days working in the toxic conditions, which left her with lung disease, and later, lung cancer.
Burnette said she was working in Brooklyn on the morning of 9/11, and took a boat to piers near the West Side Highway, arriving at the World Trade Center as the towers fell.
Burnette said she spat soot from her mouth and throat for weeks as she worked on the burning rubble pile without a protective mask.
“We didn’t even think about masks at the time,” Burnette told the outlet. “We were working so much that it didn’t cross our minds we could get sick. What makes it so sad is, we would do it all again.”
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Burnette spoke in Washington, D.C. in 2015 about her experience and how programs supporting first responders were saving her life, and would save others.
“If I was not crying over what I was seeing in the ruins, tears streamed down my face from the burning, irritating dust,” said Burnette. “Air quality, we were told was not a concern. All of us were allowed to continue to work 24/7. The work was tough and dirty, it would cause choking and it was dangerous. But there was never a time when I even thought about quitting and leaving.”
The Brooklyn native said before 9/11, she was in peak physical condition. She competed on the Police League women’s team, which won four championships. She made over 200 arrests in her career in roles that she said required “intense and physical” work everyday.
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Burnette retired in 2006 due to 9/11-related health issues, and was later forced to use a wheelchair and oxygen. She also dealt with diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, partially detached retinas and PTSD. Her struggles led her to become a leader in advocating for health help for first responders.
She was among more than 111,000 people enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Program, which gives free medical care to people with health problems potentially linked to the dust.
Burnette initially started getting treatment at a Mount Sinai clinic for lung disease — hypersensitivity pneumonitis with fibrosis — as part of screenings related to the health program.
During one of those visits in 2017, a scan wound up detecting lung cancer.
“Had I not been in the program … I don’t know that they would have found it,” Burnette said.
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Burnette continued to make appearances in support of care for 9/11 first responders as recently as last year, when she spoke during and ahead of the 20th anniversary of the terror attacks.
“I will never forget Barbara,” said Detectives’ Endowment Association President Paul DiGiacomo told the Daily News. “And I won’t forget the work and sacrifice she made on that day and throughout a career cut short by the attack on this country.”
Visitation and a funeral for Burnette are scheduled for Friday and Saturday in Brooklyn.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.