World Trade Center illnesses continue to take the lives of far too many FDNY members.
FIREFIGHTER Robert Alexander always followed in his father’s footsteps — even in death.
The 43-year-old — who worked on FDNY fireboats — died Monday of a brain tumor.
For Alexander, succumbing to a 9/11 illness is a heartbreaking family affair — last year, his father, Lt. Raymond Alexander, died of cancer linked to his time on the Pile, FDNY sources said.
“World Trade Center illnesses continue to take the lives of far too many FDNY members, now including two generations of the Alexander family — a father and son who served so bravely, for so long,” Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said Wednesday.
Alexander and his dad are the first father and son to die from 9/11-related illnesses.
Firefighter Joseph Angelini Sr., 63, and his namesake, Joseph Angelini Jr., 38, died when the twin towers collapsed.
Robert Alexander was an EMT and a city cop when terrorists flew two jumbo jets into the World Trade Center.
The Bronx man responded to the scene and spent several weeks sifting through the rubble at Ground Zero and the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island.
His mother, Ginger Alexander,74, said her son desperately searched for his best friend, Firefighter Sean Tallon, who perished in the attacks.
“He and Sean both wanted to be in the Fire Department, but Sean got there first,” she remembered. “But he was down there as a cop, looking for Sean and Sean’s car.”
“(Robert) was a special boy from the moment he was born,” she recalled. “He was my baby.”
Alexander joined the FDNY in January 2002.
In 2014, toxins he inhaled from his time at Ground Zero metastasized into an inoperable pea-sized brain tumor.
Whenever he could, he traveled to Washington to push for the renewal of the Zadroga Act to provide health care and financial assistance to sickened first responders.
“Bobby fought for the Zadroga Act and made many trips down to D.C.,” said United Firefighters Association President Gerard Fitzgerald. “He should be hailed a hero, besides being a firefighter, for what he has done for so many first responders.”
Alexander left the FDNY in October, about a month before his 76-year-old father died Nov. 21.
Lt. Alexander joined the FDNY in 1963 and worked in all five boroughs during his 40-year career.He spent his final months with the department in recovery efforts at Ground Zero, FDNY officials said.
His wife said Lt. Alexander fought seven different cancers between 2003 and 2016. He ultimately died of lung cancer.
“I’m not doing great,” she said. “Today I spent two hours doing what I have to do, and then I sat by my car near a little lake near my home and I just cried.”
“I will not get into the blame game . . . . It is what it is,” she said. “A lot of people have lost their husbands and boys.”
Next month, the names of father and son will be placed side-by-side on a memorial wall for victims of 9/11-related illnesses at FDNY headquarters in Brooklyn.
Robert Alexander is the 159th FDNY member — including firefighters, EMS personnel, civilian employees and fire marshals — to have died of 9/11-related illnesses, department officials said.